Black People are Everything
By QuianaDenae Perkins
BLACK PEOPLE ARE EVERYTHING.
Let me break that down.
We are everything, every kind of human on
the scale of human.
There are black goths, black polyamorous
people, black folks who love country music,
black people who do rodeo, black people
who eat mayo, black trans people, black
gender non conforming people, queer black
people, black folks who dont use violence
with their children, black people who hate
black people.
Blackness doesn’t make folks immune from
the full range of human possibilities of
existence.
Its 2020.
I am not playing the BLACK DONT
BLACK PEOPLE CAN’T WE DONT DO THAT
game.
Yes the fuck someone black has
Yes the fuck someone black is capable
Yes the fuck someone black can do a thing
and still be hard shiney blue obsidian black
black black.
And here I add a note to myself, as I often
forget this gracefilled truth:
Black people can interact, know, respect, be
in intimate partnership with non black
people and still be black.
I am not talking about a love for proximity
to whiteness as to be in proximity to
privilege and power.
I mean I can have a caring relationship with
BOB at my job and still be black.
I can have kids with and co parent with a
wyt person and still be black. Engaging
white people doesn’t diminish my
blackness.
We need to stop holding folks to our level of
comfort which is often rooted in safety and
survival.
What if the current Black agenda goal is not
assimilation or survival but thriving?
What if these new relationships, new music,
new words for gender is Black folks pushing
into thriving?
The question is NOT do you feel safe, is this
a blackness you know, the question is are
you coming along?
Were leaving.
Are you coming to this new vast expanded
open space we call Black?
Let me tell you, baby, I am already there
and its a beautiful.
Read DRUUMM BEAT January 2021 issue here
