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