abstractpraxis

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What Does it Mean to be Black?

Here's what I think:

Outside of the physicality of melanated people, it is an abstract definition that we often tend to describe by similarities in mannerisms, lived experiences, and struggles. While these similarities link us in important ways, I don't really believe they speak to who we are on an individual or collective scale.

We are certainly connected culturally, but we often rely so heavily on culture, we do not interrogate ourselves thoroughly enough in order to integrate and create sustainable ways of being - individually or collectively.

We look at what melanated people produce and create, and how we form our personalities and that is what makes up Blackness. The identity of Blackness is a piecing together of sorts. Because of how people migrated, were moved, removed, and deceived, there are constant attempts to name ourselves, assert who we are, and reclaim parts of ourselves.

Much of that gets done through cultural connections rather than knowledge of self and what we value most. I believe our values are who we are because values illustrate what we believe and prioritize. Sharing cultural customs and struggles are thought to collectively align our values, but they do not. It is often a betrayal of our most authentic selves that separates us from our values or makes us comfortable neglecting to form values that accurately reflect who we are and who we should be in this world.

Many have been fighting to change this, but a lot of what makes up Blackness is struggle and a sense of not belonging anywhere or to anyone. That's why a lot of melanated people do not consider themselves Black because the title and identity of Blackness are associated with being disconnected from your heritage.

When I'm filling out paperwork and I get to the race section, I'm checking Black. I don't feel the need to distance myself from Blackness because Blackness is a part of what I walk in, what I exist in, and how I came to be. However, that part of me is still a lot about how other people perceive me.

Just because I am familiar with certain customs and cultural things alongside other melanated people because of our proximity to each other doesn't mean my values align with theirs. And I believe that my identity, individually, ancestrally, and collectively lies in my values. So while I am Black, my identity is not in being a Black person because too many other people get a say in what that is. I get a say, too. And that's how it should be. But it's not organized enough and there's not enough depth for me to place my identity in that just because other people do.

Although Black people have a lot of similarities, Blackness is too vague and too varied to get to the core of who we are beyond where our lineage once existed on a map or where we live now. I believe whoever has spiritual custody of us and how we're interacting with those lineages is what determines our identity, how we show up in the world, what we value, and what we prioritize. It's not about being loyal to a piece of land, it's about loyalty to your people. Black people are not my people because we have too many different systems and values to be considered one people.

Let me say that again: Black people are not a people. That is why Blackness cannot be the center of my identity, no matter how relevant it is to my lived experience. We think we address this by saying Black people are not a monolith, but rarely does this phrase address anything that would help melanated people in the journey to reclaiming sovereignty.

That is because many of us are still under the impression that we as Black people all belong to the same family and we do not. Just because two people are both melanated doesn't mean they are from the same family. Because your identity lies in your values, not just your customs. Not just the fact that you may enjoy the same types of recreation and entertainment. Those things matter, but they do not determine who you are.

This is where centering the Black identity acts as a hindrance; it is not the unifier people want it to be. Unity is not a solution when individuals do not know who they are and where their values truly lie. If the main things we have in common are being oppressed and similar customs, that is not enough to create a relationship that will lead to us successfully building anything and disabling the oppressor.

My theory is that the Black identity mainly functions as a way to describe melanated people in America regardless of their more accurate and relevant identities. Blackness works to reference melanated descendants of enslaved people and wield systemic power over other melanated people of a similar phenotype based on how they look, not who they actually are.

While there is certainly more to Blackness than this, I believe it is crucial for me to have a fundamental understanding of this and how it affects our ability to connect with one another, see ourselves in each other, observe how it affects our habits and language, and be clear on how the politics of this identity functions outside of the personal meaning we give to it.

With this in mind, how does this affect the way we view Black love, Black representation, Black culture, and Black history?

These are the questions I am asking myself lately.

[abstractpraxis]

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye

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Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, "The Hours Behind You”, 2011

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Lynette Yiadom-Boakye ; b.1977 ~ British

Courtesy the artist; Corvi-Mora, London; and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York

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WEST AFRICAN RESOURCES

The Anthropological Masterlist is HERE.

West African is an African region that spans the western part of the continent. 

AGNIS ─ “The Agnis, or Anyi, people are an African people. They are native to the Ivory Coast.” ─ Anyi Information

AKAN ─ “The Akan people are an African people. They are native to Ghana and the Ivory Coast.” ─ Pre-Colonial History of Ghana ─ Modern-Day Akan ─ Akan Dictionary

ANNANG ─ “The Annang, or Anaang, people are an African people. They are native to southern Nigeria.” ─ Annang Dictionary

ASHANTI ─ “The Ashanti, or Asante, people are an African people. They are native to the Ashanti region in Ghana.” ─ Ashanti Information ─ Ashanti Culture ─ Ashanti History

BAMBARA ─ “The Bambara people are an African people. They are native to West Africa.” ─ Bambara Art ─ Bambara Language (in French)

BASSARI ─ “The Bassari people are an African people. They are native to the Kédougou region of Senegal.” ─ Bassari Language (in French)

EWE ─ “The Ewe people are an African people. They are native to the coastal areas of West Africa.” ─ Ewe Information ─ The Anlo-Ewe People ─ The Adze in Ewe Mythology

FON ─ “The Fon, or Dahomey, people are an African people. They are native to south Benin and southwest Togo and Nigeria.” ─ The Dahomey Amazons

IBIBIO ─ “The Ibibio people are an African people. They are native to the coasts of southern Nigeria.” ─ Ibibio Language Resources ─ Ibibio Masks

IGBO ─ “The Igbo, or Ibo, people are an African people. They are native to Nigeria.” ─ Igbo Culture ─ Igbo Dictionary

ISOKO ─ “The Isoko people are an African people. They are native to the Isoko region in Nigeria.” ─ Isoko Information ─ Isoko Culture and History ─ Isoko Dictionary

KONGO ─ “The Kongo people are an African people. They are native to the Atlantic coast of central Africa.” ─ Kongo Language Resources ─ Kongo Dictionary

KONO ─ “The Kono people are an African people. They are native to the Kono District in eastern Sierra Leone.” ─ Kono Culture and Rituals

NIGERIAN ─ “The Nigerian people are an African people that share the Nigerian culture. They are native to Nigeria.” ─ Nigerian Information ─ Colonial Nigeria

SERER ─ “The Serer, or Seereer, people are an African people. They are native to Senegal.” ─ Serer Information ─ Serer Language

TALLENSI ─ “The Tallensi, or Talensi, people are an African people. They are native to northern Ghana.” ─ Tallensi Culture ─ Tallensi Development and Culture

URHOBO ─ “The Urhobo people are an African people. They are native to the Niger Delta in Nigeria.” ─ Ughelli Kingdom Information ─ Urhobo Dictionary

VODUN ─ “Vodun, or Vodon, is a West African religion. It originates in West Africa.” ─ Christians and Vodun

YORUBA ─ “Yoruba, or Isese, is a West African religion. It originates in southwestern Nigeria.” ─ The Yoruba People ─ Yoruba Culture (in Spanish) ─ Yoruba Mythology

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“The Revel”-Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

“HE KNOWETH NOT THAT THE DEAD ARE THERE”

In yonder hills reclining/Are forms surpassing fair, 

And brilliant lights are shining/But, oh! the dead are there! There’s music, song, and dance/There’s banishment of care,

And mirth in every glance/But, oh! the dead are there!

The wine cup’s sparkling glow/Blends with viands rare,

There’s revelry and show/But still, the dead are there!

‘Neath that flow of song and mirth/Runs the current of despair,

But the simple sons of earth/Know not the dead are there!

They’ll shudder start and tremble/They’ll weep in wild despair

When the solemn truth breaks on them/That the dead, the dead are there!