today i'm celebrating being black....

i read a really interesting article in the sunday sun about being black. how can you tell how black someone is if they were born of a white mother and spent 9 months being in a white woman and so forth. i immediately remembered this poem i read years ago that started off "being black is a state of mind......" how do we tell who is truly black, by their skin colour? by how they act? you always hear how black someone is getting on, how some white rappers feel they're black based on the way they spit and i'm like eh? so then what is it?

am i more black than a person who might have a white mother or father? am i more black than what bajans would call a high red person? am i more black because i like wrap skirts and i wear oils? am i not black because i listen to "white music" (what is that?) am i blacker because i identify with the african diaspora? hmmmm, i have so many questions as a "black" woman, a coloured woman...so if i'm coloured would that make everyone else colourless? or are they coloured as well?

i don't know, being black seems to be difficult, being black means that i have to take offence when someone other than another "black" person says 'nigga' hey, let's abolish the word to begin with. granted i am guilty of using it too but no more, i've become more negro conscious. being 'black' means that i should support OJ even if he is guilty. being 'black' means that i deserve affirmative action as that is my only hope of 'making it'. man being black gives me a headache sometimes.

but i have no complaints. this whole black thought is what drives and sustains me. it gives me an identity and a history and pushes me forward constantly and it's not a bother at all.

besides everyone always likes my tan.....

black is...
black is how i like my coffee in the morning
black used to be the colour of my heart's mourning
now it's bright yellow...

black is mellow and fierce at the same time
black is the ink of the pen which writes my rhymes
black is bad? uh uh, to me, never looked more good
black is the shape of motherhood

black smells like rich cocoa on winter evenings
black is my soul radiating from within
damn! black is what's happening!

if black is beautiful then everything else must be ugly
it must suck to be a different colour than me.
hey, what colour are you?


i am evolving and i am thankful for all the rain, my tree needed it.