Why I Love Being Black

Photo by Lawrence Crayton on Unsplash

I love being Black because I come from a people who refused to disappear.

I love being Black because my ancestors dreamed of freedom they might never see and still planted seeds for future generations.

I love being Black because joy has always been one of our greatest acts of resistance.

I love being Black because we made music out of sorrow, beauty out of hardship, and community out of struggle.

I love being Black because our story is bigger than what was done to us. It is also a story of courage, creativity, faith, laughter, brilliance, and love.

I love being Black because I inherited wounds, at the same time I inherited wisdom.

I love being Black because every generation carried something forward and trusted the next generation to do the same.

I love being Black because freedom is something we continue to build together.

I love being Black because in a world that is still working to diminish us, we are still here. Still creating. Still dreaming. Still free in ways they cannot touch.

I love being Black because I belong to a people who have taught the world what hope looks like when hope would have been easier to abandon.

On Juneteenth, I remember the struggle. I also celebrate the songs, the stories, the families, the communities, the faith, and the dreams.

Juneteenth is a declaration that we are still here, and we are not finished.

I love being Black.