Black Folk Need To Document Their Testimonials
The More The Better
In light of what happened in Montgomery, Alabama, I’m declaring that Black folk everywhere need to document their testimonials. We need to share, and widely so, the stories that make us who we are.
We need more Black-based content, we need more stories, more documentaries, more theater, more film, more more more more more more more.
We need more!
We deserve more. If you aren’t going to give us reparations in the form of money and we know you aren’t, then pay us by giving us what else is due. Pay us in the land, in education, in housing, in food. Pay us in whatever way it hurts you protected by white supremacy wallets because we’ve fucking earned it.
Alabama and the resulting battle between the races of Black security guard vs white army is not the first time Black folk has stood up for each other, and it’s not going to be the last. Black people are starting to realize that the police are not here to save us, and because of that if we want to be defended we’re going to have to defend ourselves.
I’ve written about this upcoming battle for months but y’all didn’t listen to me.
Well, here the fuck we are. We are now in the position of having to tell ya’ll that you fucked around and now you are finding the fuck out. Black people are not standing by while you idly kill us as if we don’t deserve to exist.
It’s not okay for white supremacists to act like mauling a Black person for doing their job, is okay, while Black people are then arrested for having to defend themselves against this mob mentality.
White people are not fighting fair. They have God on their side, so they’re using whatever they can as weapons. Guns, cars, fists, the police, whatever white supremacists can weaponize they are weaponizing and thousands of innocent Black Americans are being killed every day.
It’s time for Black people to start telling their own stories. There are all kinds of really great creators using Tik Tok, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube to showcase their work but it’s not enough. We need more of y’all to learn to use those superpowers you inherited last year so that the entire world is on notice.
Black folk spent years protesting, the Black Lives Matters march lasted for five long years and it had it’s run but my fear and the fear of people who look like me is that more violence is coming and that it’s not going to stop until we’re at all out civil war.
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Lots of people like to pretend that we’re not headed there, and prove so by suggesting that when treated with violence we react with silence, like Marlon Waynes did recently, but I am not prepared to die without a fight, the hands of white people.
I’m sorry that’s just not how I am going out, so if I have to fight to save my life or the lives of my cousins, that's what I am going to do and I am really tired of hearing Black celebrities who are protected from these “random but not so random” acts of violence by the very nature of their celebrity.
Right now we’re starting to see people throw things at performers on stage, how long until Nazis take that one step further by shooting up clubs, massage parlors, and concerts? Oh wait, we’re already past that point, so how much more violence are Black folk — in particular — supposed to take before we’re allowed to start fighting back for our lives?
I’m not suggesting that we fight back with violence, but I understand the inclination. I’m suggesting that we fight back by recording our stories, building websites devoted to our lives, and showcasing who we are to the world so that forever more there will be a legacy of what we’ve created left behind.
I think that there should be a legacy project for every Black person alive because some of us are the last descendants of those who were enslaved. Some of us have no connection to our historical ancestors because records were not kept about Black people and their children.
Black children have been encouraged to have children “early,” (read age twelve or thirteen) for centuries, and then when Black children have children, they are vilified for having those children.
When after five hundred years of enslavement, and systemic abuse at the hands of white supremacists Black women choose other Black men to have their children with, or wonder of wonder choose not to have children at all, we’re vilified for that too.
There’s no winning in this world so we may as well tell as many Black-based stories as we can as long as we’re here, and if they refuse a platform for us to sell those stories on, then we build our own platforms.
We already have our own banks, cannabis and liquor stories, and our own fashion and business companies, there is absolutely nothing that Black people can’t do if we don’t fight like Hell to achieve our dreams.
More and more I am starting to realize that while it's true I am only 50% Black, the world doesn’t see me as 50% white. And won’t. The world refuses to see me as half Black, so I don’t have the privilege of my white ancestors, even if you think the world is easier for me because I’m light-skinned, I assure you it’s not.
Because my mouth I am unappealing to those who prefer their Black folk beautiful and silent. I am unafraid of speaking up against the white supremacist patriarchy that has long ago decided my fate should and will be in the hands of white men and women.
So tell your stories, and make sure you get paid to tell your stories because you absolutely deserve to.
Speaking of Black stories, don’t forget to grab your copy of the great new short story by Rosalyn Morris, The Healing Game.
Sending all my love,
Devon J Hall, The Loud Mouth Brown Girl
