Black Joy as an Act of Resistance
the african-american lived experience
has been
interesting not in a light-hearted
dismissive
or jovial way but in a way that if you
are african-american
you kind of know what i’m talking about
we are one of the only ethnic groups
within this country who constantly have
to explain
who we are we constantly have to provide
context for the things that we say we
have to explain the way that we dress
the way that we talk and that we are not
being
aggressive when everyone else seems to
think that we are
when it’s really just passion that
is the african-american lived experience
if you could not tell i am a millennial
millennials are different because we get
blamed for literally
everything from the spread of the
coronavirus to whatever you name it
we get blamed for it all
but what a lot of people do not realize
is that millennials have turned or are
almost
- people do not understand that
millennials have children
millennials most importantly have a nap
time right
a lot of people do not understand that
we need rs
these are some of the most interesting
aspects of being
a millennial but what is also different
by being black
and a millennial is that our lived
experience is extremely
different than our white peers we did
not have an opportunity to grow up and
maintain our innocence
we had to learn about race racism and
white supremacy
at a very early age just recently
prince harry stated that he did not have
to address racism and white supremacy
until he married meghan markle
i’m sure that is an amazing experience
to have but for us
is just not it in 1976 child
psychologist
richard perry and theodor shapiro spoke
about the age of seven
being the age of reason this is the age
where common sense
and maturity begin
let me tell you what happened when i was
seven
when i was seven on national television
we witnessed the beating of rodney king
a year later when i was eight because of
the verdict of that trial we witnessed
the la uprising when i was 15 an unarmed
amadou diallo was shot
41 times when i was 28
an unarmed teenager trevor martin was
killed by a pseudo
police officer at 31 michael brown
at 32 a day before my birthday
sandra bland a black woman was stopped
for a minor traffic incident and was
killed found dead
in her jail cell at 36
george floyd was murdered on national
television
as a cop kneeled on his neck for exactly
8 minutes and 46 seconds
for 30 years of my life all i have seen
as a black man in this country
is trauma but one of the most unique
things about black people
and our experience is that we always
turn trauma
into laughter we always find very unique
ways to make
our most traumatic experiences funny
kevin hart during his 2011 stand-up
special laugh at my pain spoke very
deeply about his own traumatic
experiences
in the most comedic way leslie jones
a black woman who was constantly berated
because of her features said
the best way to conquer pain is through
laughter
martin lawrence in 2002 during his
stand-up special run tell that
spoke about how he had a mental health
episode and
everyone made light of it when the
brother was crying out for help
hattie mcdaniel was an amazing oscar
winning actress who acted before we
had civil rights in this country she
used her acting chops to still
make us all laugh at the root of all of
our trauma we have always been able to
find
joy in our grief joy and our trauma
and joy and our own resistance
speaking about black joy and
opportunities to experience black joy
i want to talk a little bit more about
what it means to lean into
black joy as a millennial
we had traumatic experiences but we also
have ways to reaffirm our blackness
whether it’s from our parents or whether
from tv shows
like the cosby show and yes i know bill
cosby
is majorly controversial but the reality
of the situation is that
that show was pivotal and our
development is millennial black children
we were able to witness a black family
we were able to witness a black mother
and father who were both black
professionals raising
black children who went through
incidents just as i did as a teenager
we were able to watch a different world
a show that invited a generation of
black youth to decide to attend
historically black colleges and
universities in large numbers
we watched martin as he showed us the
greatness of his talents
he showed us that he and we could be
literally anything
that we wanted to be a living single
a show about young black
single excellent folks where you could
literally be an attorney
a talk show host and owner of a magazine
and still
has some of the same experiences that
you or i have
each of these shows during that 30 years
of my life from childhood
to adulthood worked as distractions for
our own healing
our own enlightenment and most
importantly reminded us
about the elegance of our blackness and
helped us to focus on our joy
but what if what if we were simply
allowed
to be what if the scales of justice were
actually balanced
what if my skin your skin and our skin
was decriminalized what if america
really reinforced the concept
or the idea of life and liberty and the
pursuit of happiness
what if i or you or any of us
did not have to explain our existence to
anyone
why we choose to wear our hair the way
that we choose or why we choose to dress
the way that we choose to dress or eat
the foods that we choose to eat
what if we did not always have to
explain our blackness
what if our joy is our own
responsibility
we all know that we are responsible for
our own joy
we all know that we are responsible for
our own happiness
the pursuit of your own happiness is a
journey
that only you can go on we are
responsible for the defeating of our
own imposter syndrome the lived
experience that i previously mentioned
constantly makes us feel inadequate
one of the things that is not solely our
responsibility
but should be a freedom of ours is the
right to a just
equitable and an undisturbed existence
because those
are rights that are granted to us simply
for being
human our blackness is not at all
criminal
our joy our black joy
is and always will be an act
of resistance thank you