Things I Love About Being Black
There are so many things to love about being Black, and it’s
so funny how some blacks take those things for granted but instead look at themselves
with disdain. I believe that we Black people need to change our minds about us
and begin to embrace the things that are uniquely Black. We have to love those
things, while loving ourselves.
Black people are a special and wonderful blend of horrible oppression, faith, hope, creativity, spirituality and unresolved issues. No matter how bad things are, we still have what it takes to make it better.
Haven’t we always?
Yes, and I love that about us.
For all the problems, the ups and downs of being part of the most challenged race on the planet, there is nothing more beautiful than walking, talking and dancing in the sun as Black people. We are the party and everyone wants to attend. It’s time for us to celebrate.
I’d like to celebrate the things that I love about being
Black.
Top Ten Things I Love About Being Black:
1. Melanin: The sun loves us. Melanin protects us from the harmful UV rays and when we absorb them, we are in tune and in time with the earth¹s rotation and the rhythm of the universe. Plus, God gave us our own rainbow in the shades of Africans, from light-bright and damn-near white to Blue-Black and every shade in between. God is an artist and we are the canvas.
2. Rhythm: Show me a person who says: "Blacks have natural rhythm" as a putdown and I will show you someone who is jealous because they can’t find the beat. Dance like no one is watching.
3. Resilience, brothers and sisters: There is no other group of people who has the ugly history carried by Black people, and yet, we still exist and find a way to be happy as well as carry on through ugly conditions, making it look beautiful. Maya Angelou said it best: "And still I rise"
4. The Black female physiques: Females of other races go through hell and high water, surgery and the risk of cancer in the sun just to imitate what God gave us naturally--lips and hips, skin and hair, rhythm in the talk and walk and our appeal as deep as Atlantis.
5. The Black man’s walk: It took years of watching my older brothers and cousins to understand the walk of a man that makes all eyes turn on them when they walk into a room. There’s a rhythmic air of confidence that belongs to my brothers and no matter how hard you work to imitate it, you can’t walk it like a black man does.
6. Black hair: Dreads, braids and fades are just different and artistic on natural Black hair, and even when we lay our hair down with heat or chemicals, it’s still a beautiful and different thing, because no one can rock relaxed hair like Black women. And no one can rock a bald head like a Black man.
Top Ten Things I Love About Being Black:
1. Melanin: The sun loves us. Melanin protects us from the harmful UV rays and when we absorb them, we are in tune and in time with the earth¹s rotation and the rhythm of the universe. Plus, God gave us our own rainbow in the shades of Africans, from light-bright and damn-near white to Blue-Black and every shade in between. God is an artist and we are the canvas.
2. Rhythm: Show me a person who says: "Blacks have natural rhythm" as a putdown and I will show you someone who is jealous because they can’t find the beat. Dance like no one is watching.
3. Resilience, brothers and sisters: There is no other group of people who has the ugly history carried by Black people, and yet, we still exist and find a way to be happy as well as carry on through ugly conditions, making it look beautiful. Maya Angelou said it best: "And still I rise"
4. The Black female physiques: Females of other races go through hell and high water, surgery and the risk of cancer in the sun just to imitate what God gave us naturally--lips and hips, skin and hair, rhythm in the talk and walk and our appeal as deep as Atlantis.
5. The Black man’s walk: It took years of watching my older brothers and cousins to understand the walk of a man that makes all eyes turn on them when they walk into a room. There’s a rhythmic air of confidence that belongs to my brothers and no matter how hard you work to imitate it, you can’t walk it like a black man does.
6. Black hair: Dreads, braids and fades are just different and artistic on natural Black hair, and even when we lay our hair down with heat or chemicals, it’s still a beautiful and different thing, because no one can rock relaxed hair like Black women. And no one can rock a bald head like a Black man.
7. Resourcefulness: We took the waste products that were tossed to us and made them taste like the food of the Gods. And, many of us have stories of a Black mother who stretched nothing out to make it seem like something that a house full of kids could enjoy and have fond memories about for years.
8. Black mothers: Stretching food is nothing compared to the feat of stretching love and making Christmas or a birthday special without one store-bought gift. The original mother of the universe stretched her arms and provided love and comfort for an entire race, even when we don’t feel deserving of love. Why do you think Black kids are the most protective of their mothers?
9. Black dances: Okay, I will brag about the stepping that has emerged from many African countries to become an international craze. Dance mechanically by the numbers if you want to, but Britney Spears is still regurgitating old half-warmed Janet Jackson moves from the 1980’s and it ain’t half as fly.
10. Black creativity: Take away school music programs and give us old record collections from previous generations and only Black people could create an entirely new musical style based on our natural rhythms and rhymes. Some Popular black music may be mostly ignorant in its content, but the beats are still banging’ and the underground is developing new lyrical styles and content.
Now, there are at least ten reasons to celebrate being you.
Add to the list on your own. Keep them near and dear to your heart whenever
anyone tries to say we are anything but a beautiful people. We may not wear the
t-shirts anymore, but I still love being Black!
Comments
Post a Comment