Miracle Jones The radical revolutionary resilience of Black joy TED

smile

don’t forget to let daddy see you smile

that’s what i would hear for months at

the age of four from

the time the sheriff took my dad away

until the time the probation officer

said it was okay

for him to come home on his own

smile it’s weird to me we call

finding joy so many things these days

resiliency determination survival etc

but at the end of the day

joy is just a simple moment of gratitude

and happiness

you allow yourself to have joy

it’s not this toxic positivity where we

force

ourselves to ignore the realities of the

world

and avoid the problems in our life joy

it’s just a moment of reflection and

happiness by which we are able to tell

ourselves

there is more this life

there is more to this world than just

pain

joy is how our ancestors survived joy

is how we know what to fight for joy

is how we build our community joy

is how we show love joy it’s why we’re

still here

you see there

is this indescribable joy that comes

from being able

to live and thrive despite

all of the obstacles and barriers

that come with living in anti-blackness

part of it is a hope that things will

soon get better

and part of it is a celebration

of still being around still

being here i

i first encountered this when i was four

years old

when the sheriff came to take my dad

away

for the first time

i was so afraid and confused i

i remember my father telling me to smile

because everything would be all right

every time a guard would yell time’s up

he would say smile

because it’s going to be all right

it’s going to get better i’ll be home

soon

it’s going to be okay i remember

questioning everything but believing my

father

so i would cry because i had to leave

him

but i would smile because i knew he was

coming home soon

i would take this lesson with me for

years to come understanding that

having joy and holding out hope was

sometimes the only thing i had to hold

on to

so i would hold on to my joy for as long

as possible

even even when i saw my mom struggle

to feed and clothe four children on her

own

even when the bank foreclosed on her

home

even when we were a family of six

living at an extended stay for almost

half of the year

even even when the social worker came

for a checkup

with a promise to return if we missed

any more days of school

even even

when i got the call i would never see my

father

again just smile

it will get better smile

so when this past year of social unrest

took over the nation

i was prepared to be filled with dread

and exhaustion

as i geared up to take to the streets

once again

from previous work i already knew how

lonely and tiring protesting

state violence could be and i prepared

mentally and physically to take to the

streets to fight for yet

another black life stolen

away

but i wasn’t alone i was joined by so

many other

black folks we’d we’d hoped that despite

everything that something would be

different

this time around so we

took the streets with our drums

our voices our bodies our dances

yet some people did join us questioning

who we were and whether our actions

could actually

make a change they looked at us

dancing in the middle of the street

and chanting i

i believe i believe that

i believe that we i believe that we will

i believe that we will win i believe

that we will win

and they asked us what will that

accomplish

i had to laugh again do you know of the

struggle

it took just to get here do you know the

fear

and the pain and the anxiety it took

just

for black people to leave the house and

take up space not knowing

if they would get tear gas in the middle

of the street

arrested incarcerated

or abandoned do

do you understand that sometimes our joy

is all that we have to make it through

to the next day

that our trauma may radicalize us

but it will not sustain

our movements

joy is so controversial for us because

for so long

black and brown people were reduced to

tropes

on trauma and pain

our resiliency became the narrative that

others

created for us we were we were told we

had to

struggle for success that we had to

be twice as good to go half as far

but be grateful to just be in the room

imagine feeling guilty

just because you experienced joy in your

life

many many seem to forget that

existing and thriving in a world that

was predicated

upon your destruction is in itself

a reason to celebrate so we take up

space

as ours has been stolen and gentrified

from us

we we dance in the middle

of the street as we show up for each

other

and remember our hope

for the future we we celebrate

together because

we are a community of people

bonded together in joy

and pain who refuse

refuse to leave each other we

we fight together because we have no

other choice

my first protest this last summer i was

almost moved to tears when i saw

literally

hundreds of people coming and taking to

the streets

shouting black lives matter

from the top of their lungs seeing

communities from all across the

commonwealth

coming and agreeing that black people

black people were loved

and valued created not only a moment of

joy

but of protection it gave some

black folks a moment to let go of a

breath

they didn’t even know they were holding

because they were

internally waiting

to be ignored and devalued

once again the experience

in finding support but most of all

each other gave black people joy in the

midst of fighting

police and state violence

do you know how radical and

revolutionary joy is

as a black person living in america

do you know how radical and

revolutionary joy

is as a black woman living

in the worst city for black women

we not only find joy in hopeless spaces

we hold on to it and we share it with

others

we dance in the middle of the street the

drum beats of our ancestors

knowing their courage and faith guide

our every steps

every single day we

we find joy when we plan our

breastfeeding circles

when we cry

on each other’s shoulders

when we walk through the doors of a

black-owned business

when we create a crash mob for a

black-owned business

when we create arts that is for us and

by us

when we host festivals and balls we

we find joy because we know and

understand

what it takes for black people to be

here

and understand that their love

for the community brought them here

despite it all

we we find joy because our existence is

resistance

and our happiness is revolutionary

you know people say we laugh too loudly

we dance too hard and our collapse cause

thunder

but me

i say take up all the space

you need find joy whenever

you will disrupt all the systems you can

and if you want to smile

thank you