Black Personhood

The most dangerous enemy of Black personhood springs from our own people. — The only passage I remember from my forced reading of Clarence Thomas’ memoir was how he decided to quit drinking. Thomas wrote that he was in a tub nursing a hangover when he decided he did not want to feel that way again. …

Only a society that has given into its racial-based myths allows the conditions which facilitate mass shootings. — Marvel at how Ruth Whitfield raised her son. “Is there nothing you personally are willing to do to stop the cancer of white supremacy and the domestic terrorism it inspires? Because there is nothing, then respectfully, senators, you should yield your positions of authority and influence to others that…

Black elderhood offends white supremacy. It cannot tolerate the mentorship and proof of survival advanced age evidences. — And though you did me gruesome, I was surely relieved/ I completed my mission, wasn’t ready to leave/ But fulfilled my days, my Creator was pleased/ — Kendrick Lamar, The Heart Pt. 5 Nine of the eleven Black victims the Buffalo white supremacist shooter murdered were elders.

Basic TV demands that Black personhood explain and justify its survival. With Abbott Elementary, Black personhood explains less and shows more. — With his final episode airing, black-ish departs from its mission of delivering comfort food to its viewers on ABC and subscribers on Hulu. For eight seasons, we watched the Johnson family grow up and eventually grow out of their Sherman Oaks neighborhood. Zoey went off to university and her own…

In calling me out for refusing to play the game of white analogies, Johnny Silvercloud falls into their trap of mystifying Black suffering when we have already solved the equation toward ending it. — A few weeks ago, the mighty Johnny Silvercloud responded to an argument implicit in my defense of Will Smith’s slap. Several of my white friends had reached out to me and used analogies to our previous jobs as public school teachers to convince me why Smith’s slap against Chris Rock…

White analogies serve to move Smith’s interpersonal violence into the realm of policing and political oppression. It’s an old move in the playbook of whiteness that centers their political anxieties. — As of the morning of April 9th, 2022, my writing on Will Smith slapping Chris Rock has earned me 3,300 views, 2,000 reads, and about $34 in royalties on here. My argument hinged on the following claims — that all cultures have codes that dictate engagement of interpersonal violence; that…

On white people believing Black folk make up 41% of the population, daycare, gun control, and Blackness. — Lots of life happened and I was unable to get out a newsletter last week. Please forgive me! Last week, YouGovAmerica released poll data revealing that citizens do not have an accurate understanding of how small subgroups and minority numbers are in the nation. …

On Priti Nemani, lonely Moses, exhaustion, and Blackness. — Priti (“Preethee”) Nemani reminded me today of the reasons why I do and why I don’t write. Nemani writes to build multi-racial coalitions against white supremacy. She understands that this requires her to never take a position of neutrality regarding racial issues. She insists that folks she works with pronounce…

On ancestral seats, Elden Ring, the rapper from Chicago, and Blackness. — My family traveled to Helena this weekend to bury the great-grandmother on her paternal side. Helena is a rural town in the Arkansas Delta that Teach for America sent me to do my service in 2008. 14 years later, it has become my spiritual locus. In Little Rock, folks always…