When asked about blackness
I see
My humanity
So obvious
So close, it IS my skin
I feel my breath
And I know I am alive

The other black is what happens to you when you leave your house
and learn that you were not always included in all the us’es
That’s the black in their eyes, not mine.

It feels like I look on the screen, and see my people portrayed as thugs, killers, Gang members, addicts, drug dealers.
Yeah it’s a reflection on some
What about scientists, inventors? Or does that not fit the narrative?
Paint us as villainous killers, like we don’t feel compassion
like we come out the womb wanting to commit stabbings,
Like we’re just born violent, like we run round the streets like tyrants
Fighting amongst each other. Spilling our own blood.
Is this picture you’ve painted of us so your police force can justify the forever rising body count of Black corpses.
Yuh lucky we ain’t saying bum down Babylon forces
If you didn’t see us as a threat you wouldn’t come to protest riding horses,
You wouldn’t think Stephan Lawrence’s own friend murdered him!
If you didn’t see us as a threat you wouldn’t clutch your purse, or cross the street when you see us,
If you didn’t see us as less intelligent why would you predict grades that we exceed by far!
If you didn’t think of us as criminals why would stop us for driving a nice car!
like we can’t be lawyers, Doctors, architects
Assume we don’t have that intelligence or potential?

Treat us a like a major threat, gun us down while we’re jogging we can’t even break a sweat!

Yes I’m a black man who’s angry bun a stereotype
I’m angry because I’m hurt, because I’m in pain because I see people that look like my cousins, my mother my girlfriend, myself murdered again and again!
And if we were the monsters you see us as we wouldn’t want justice we’d want revenge!

Don’t be alarmed by my people
Salaam salaam with this peace I’m peaceful
Yoruba man got the hammer in agbada
Judging by the look fashion killer on a mazza
Tried to show colour they just want the Yamma Yamma
Beg you don’t vex when we don’t move with no manners
They call me black this they call me black that
Put me for blacklist they say they fear blackout
They don’t mind that the algorithm ain’t for us
Till we’re giving real life warnings
When I arrive in the place they will rival the face
But iDeyGoke
Exposure is not a payment
Till emails get leaked and it leads to blackmailing
You don’t want me dark in your life as a black man
Buchalli dubh but got colour on the kaftan
You don’t think Black Lives Matter
Till your laying In Mater
Black nurse black doctor
Seen a lot posting not much listening
Who’s gone speak up speak out different
Turn the phone off what life are you living
I’ve been on road ain’t got nowt from drilling
Money ain’t power till you uplift vision
So my Netflix now is a money heist mission
Storm the castle take back privilege
But see the traps for new path new visions
Man might just go up the hill Jack a Jillin
I don’t give a damn how no Karen been feeling
No honesty in business no loyalty among thieves
Prayed for clean record, no dirt to touch name
Born as a lion king got thrown into a bugs a life
Mr. Richie Rich think he slick with the contracts
Fa Korede, success coming in
I come from where you fight lions and show face
Tell me who won it’s the belly of the beast that we come from
You ain’t seen no life like this
Opps all looks the same can’t differentiate
Know the real but baby still work the play

A festival of blackness, that lies behind the eyelids and reminds us of the womb
And the universes unknown places and the mysteries of spaces
Underneath the ground and underneath the oceans
And before the dawn of time and earthly days
And the energies of light that reside inside the capsules of carbon
Or are captured in the pupils of the eyes
Or collected in the weightiest conglomerate of particles
A darkness worth the worship of a billion saintly lives
So let the poets and the scribes and all the artists speak in awesome blackly darkness
In the cavities of heart and in our minds
To celebrate and to believe
That which we know but never see
That black is then and now and there and here and them and you and me

Black is absorbing the shockwaves and becoming richer
Black is the valley from which humanity’s deepest truths flow
Black is walking with the ancestors in your step
Black is victory
Black is the Garden of Eden
Black is the Mother Goddess
Black is the fertile soil
Black is beauty
Black is untold fortune
Black is a privilege
Black is Africa
Black is the valley from which humanity’s deepest truths flow

I AM BLACK
Black like carbon, the element of creation
The blue sky, yellow sun, and red earth to make a nation
They want to tar us with our black
But we are painted ebony like the brilliant night sky with blinking crystal stars
Charcoal, ore, ash and graphite to put my voice to paper
Black gold running slick through my veins under the terra-cotta topography of my skin
I am forever grateful to my maker

Africa is the motherland
Africa is where God laid his hand
for us humans to be born
Africa is where everyone one of us is from
Melanin fades when you don’t get enough sun
If we are looking at history how far back are you willing to go?
cause before psychotic eugenicists and wars, we all had afros
And deep, deep down everyone knows we are all one

Its history has been either been erased from time or placed in shackles
Its very wording is associated with mostly negativity
Its people are paraded and portrayed as criminal or lazy
And its champions often seem to forget about the culture from which they came.
Not speaking out enough and even ignoring all the pain
But then, all of a sudden, nothing was the same
One day, that theorised and prophesied day finally came.
The straw the broke the camel's back
A man by the name of our English Patron Saint was slain.
And being black
Would never, ever be the same again.

Blackness is a social constructed cage
Within which I find myself contained
Constricted, controlled and castrated
Blackness is bad they say
But without it there would be no day
Blackness is the darkness within I say
Where I see comfort within my cave
Like the tortoise or the turtle I hurtle
To embrace this intimate space
Blackness is the unknown depths of the ocean
Where the fish light up in the psychedelic might
Blackness I hear in the silence of the night
Softly breathing on my neck
Unarmed, unguarded, undressed
Listening to the ancestral beat of my tears

I’m feeling black like the midnight sky
Filled with pride
Safe being lost in blackness
Safe to look deep inside
I’m black and angry
Because that galvanises me to stand up for what I believe to be treated fairly
I’m feeling black like death being born into the unknown
I don’t fear death, nor do I fear myself
Because in the darkness is where my true strength is shown
Black is the unknown that excited territory waiting for me
Black is being unsure and safe in uncertainty

Today black is viewed as a culture and not a race
And always second place to the whiter face
Today black isn’t who you are or what you’re trying to be
Today black is associated with words such as danger and death
Today the word black is wildly misunderstood and sometimes taken for a mug
However, in this new era and decade things might change
The word black might have a positive comeback
In the wider eye black could finally look fine
History has shown the colour white is pure and right
While the colour black is evil and dark
Needs to prove itself as a positive mark
If white is Christ, then the adversary must be black
That’s how the colour black is viewed
Especially for people like you
For the people sorted into the house of black
Know that the hood culture isn’t at your very core
Break free of the mindset of being poor
Break free of the mindset of the slave
Continue the movement that our slain leaders paved
The colour black needs you to protect it, not disgrace it
To love it, not hate it
No matter the different shades of black
And that is my poem about what black means in today’s society

Hands up, don’t move
Unless I tell you to
Put your hands behind your back
If I mention something that
Is an experiential fact
You’re scared of the cops
Or worse you’ve been stopped
For no reason other than
They don’t like the look of you
And anytime they come to you
Its cause someone asked them to
Which points to another truth
Other people are a danger
Strangers, disapproval is all it takes
Make no mistake their judgement
Is meant to be used to coerce you
Worst, who decides what’s wrong and right
Like the doctor who ignores you
Ask them to see you through a tough time
Their response smart and slime
They’ll feed you any line
On how they know more
But of course, you leave sicker than before
Or more indoctrination from the media and education
What’s that representation, slander or pander
To a joke to justify choke
Its funny, maybe nothing was better
Never love yourself
Always in trouble for somebody else’s
Prejudice, just tired of being touched
But never being allowed to be angry
Else you’re ‘that’ minority
Hands still up, guess what

You’re free to go
But your friend, oh no

the pigment in my skin,
all that melanin,
it breeds a side of me, that is held down by society.
The darkness I emit is a brightness they resist.
See black is beautiful, and black is more than this.
The aura in the midnight sky would not radiate so bright.
And the patterns on a cheetahs skin would not be so bold and contrasting.
How would I see a forest in front of me,
if those seeds were not evolved in a dark place to be?
And how would the moon look down and guide me, if the sky remained bright and made my eyes blurry?

See darkness can be good and can give me time to rest.
I can calm my mind at night, and ground myself so I can be my best.
They tell me black is not a look,
but I can see so much through the universes book.
The planets and the unknown deep sea,
they tell me that I can thrive and be me,
because without that darkness those creatures could not live,
and in our eyes those planets, they would not exist.
And neither do I if I can’t be loved for the colour of my skin,
If my history can’t be acknowledged and it can’t be seen.

Darkness can be good, darkness can be positive.
Darkness is the contrast to light but isn’t worse or a negative.
It goes hand in hand with the brightness that exists,
They are complimentary and without the other, there would be no dynamics.

I want that for my skin, for my brothers and sisters,
For them and others to know that darkness isn’t a faulted conception
it just makes us glow,
in a different way but still the same,
equilibrium within the human race

Does her blackness blind you
As her skin shimmers in the sun
Glistening through the leaves, where berries can be found.

Strands of hair between worlds,
Queen of the colony she stands.
In space
She floats
Charging the universe
Let ink write her story in the night sky

Spray her face on walls
Let her be known
That she is beautiful.
That black is beautiful.

The beautiful darkness of her skin rich in melanin 

Soft and sweet against her offspring’s face.

She is mother to me and of the human race.

Held with the power of love 

Enshrined through her prophetic embrace,

Eternally entwined within those of her blood, 

An exquisite aesthetic enshrines the artistry 

Of her knowledge,

Of the past and history.

Our blackness is not always clear to see

So no-one has the right to make 

Judgement over me.

Her African blood courses through my heart, 

Imparting scared knowledge

And honourable legacies.

From the ancient kingdoms of Mali, Ghana and Benin 

Is where I get my melanin.

A rich cultural heritage,

Innovation and spirituality,

Have equipped all her people

And those across the sea,

‘though hidden in plain sight, 

Woven in rich fabrics and  hair   

That adorn our crowns and form, 

a powerful truth is revealed; 

That we descend from the high-born stool 

of her, from whom we’re born.

From the continent’s ancient kings and queens 

if we just stop and look within.

Mother Africa, Queen of Queens

Knows the power of the seed held inside, 

Contained within our melanin. 

She made us so that all will know that 

Black is always beautiful  

no matter where we live and grow.

Her single most precious gift of all 

Is the grace and power 

Of the melanin within our own skin.

Look up at a night sky,
what colour do you see? Black,
which makes the stars shine brighter
than when the city light pollution
obscures the view!
In karate, a black belt is the highest rank
one can achieve!
So believe the black belt is a symbol
of mastery within oneself,
mind and body,
being a symbol of wisdom and expertise!
Black is the colour we wear
when mourning last time I checked,
so never forget,
that the colour black has been
and still is the colour of respect!
The black swallowtail caterpillar
goes into a chrysalis
for 10-14 days in that span of 1 to 2 weeks,
the caterpillar is surrounded by blackness,
helping it grow and blossom
into the butterfly that’s appreciated by society.
Blackness continues to be the caterpillar’s protection
and shield! A shield which gives the caterpillar to grow
Until the chrysalis slowly starts to split and the wings are revealed!
Black is the deepest trenches of the ocean,
something wonderful and full of mystery!
Black charcoal being used as face masks
gives the skin an ethereal glow,
Too hot for summer,
but thick black coats keep you warm in the winter tho!
Black is flavour mixed with elegance!
Like Dave said Black is beautiful black is excellence!

“Where are you from?”

“No, but where are you actually from?”

Why do you care?

And please, stop touching my hair.

What do you see when you look at me?

Why are you staring like this?

I know some people are just curious, others even want to learn,

But please let me insist, the colour of my skin is not your concern.

People still seem surprised when I talk about racial attacks in the 21st century,

day-to-day hypocrisy and discrimination,

as if it was even possible to erase more than 400 years of oppression.

I still hear people saying to my brother:

“You are a credit to your race”

“Oh yeah, you’re so articulate”

I am tired of hearing

“I believe the most qualified person should get the job”

“Indeed, everyone can succeed in society if they work hard enough”

“Gosh, your name is so hard to pronounce”, they whine

as we watch films full of faces that don’t look like mine.

I can’t wrap my head around the social construction of whiteness,

to me, it just doesn’t make sense,

and if you pay attention, you’ll realise

it doesn’t happen anywhere else.

Look at the kaleidoscopic birds,

all of them of different colours, tints and shades.

Eating the same food, breathing the same air;

Look at them. They don’t care.

These are just a few examples of micro-aggressions,

I could spend hours talking about the lack of diversity,

institutional racism and police repression.

When I turn on the news and see what’s happening,

almost as if we didn’t belong,

almost as if being black is a sin,

It just makes me wonder,

are humans the only race that can’t see beyond their skin

Dark is the night sky
Shadow to the morning sun

There’s is no moonlight without the heavens sky
There’s is no star shine without atomic space
There is no ugliness in the rays of light
But Beauty that can only be shown in the dark night.
Black is hidden behind the light
But one cannot exist without the other
Yin yang ☯️
Now Read between the lines and you will find my peace

Black is everything.

Black elegance, excellence, opulence

Black is dark chocolate,
brown nuts, Moroccan coffee,
Black is beautiful …
The darker the berry the sweet the juice.

From the dark soil of our motherland where rays of a light beam
Our roots are watered and natured
We are in harmony

Different pigments and complications
Made up of different shades of skin
Created a unity of melanin
With a bond tighter than my 4c curls.

We unite
We live
We are human.

Racism has always been a pandemic.
Tainting our perceptions of beauty’s natural image.
I straighten, weave, and wig.
I colour block my baby hair; to taint your vision of my damaged edges, making them look slick to the heavens. To cover up years of damage that have soothed my ego’s intentions for acceptance.
I am forever seeking new products to elevate my curls.
Scared of the backlash of humidity and shrinkage.
I am empowered by the coils and kinks that are my hair’s elasticity.
We shall support black-owned! Miss Jessies, Aunt Jackie’s, Soultanicals. Self-made; Madam C J Walker.
Black absorbing light.
Wearing our natural hair is a practice of acceptance. A celebration.
Changing narratives for the self to influence nations. Perceptive implications are processed and drilled in societal expectations.
Let’s make a change.
I am more than my hair. Black hair produces its own vitamins and oils.
My afro currency.
My braids are a signed treaty.
My headscarf, solidarity.
Big chop new reality.
Regrowth, repeat.
Don’t touch my hair. Afrocentric and proud.
Influenced by the motherland my Bantu knots refer you to my southern African heritage.
My yarn wrapped hair defies gravity.
I alert you to my presence as you smell my shea butter melt into the room.
We are a physical representation of community and strength.
Our hair is interchangeable, political, and powerful.
Racism has always been a pandemic!

Dark on the outside and black on the inside.
Internal darkness constantly evolving.
Entwined dreams, despair from the growth of an icon.
Overwhelmed by progress and predestination.
A desire to be touched with love and care.
With a need to be welcomed and protected.
But I am no damsel. I get no free rides.
I’ll stand my ground and be my own shining guide.
I’ll champion myself with my own fanfare.
The Black Knight of justice and integrity.
I know the secret lives of Kings and of Queens.
I stored it all, the truth never really leaves.
Keep cutting me down to control, mould and dull.
The lessons are old and yet still they won’t learn.
I am Ebony, enduring with lustre.
Desired by the rich but toxic when crushed

Black is used propaganda politicised and weaponised to condition us to be afraid let’s move away from this narrative black Darkness is evil white and light is good and shift to purpose like night and day the way we think is costing human life Black Life

I travel back to the black safe walls of my mother’s womb

where I was nurtured in darkness all curled

In blackness we grow, transform there is comfort

As my creator put my soul in the black transition, I am an infinite being 

In the blackest of places we are reborn

They say the light is at the end of the tunnel

There’s light within black because light reflects light

We forget black absorbs and delivers you the light

Looking up against the black sky Stars shining so bright 

Black holy night almighty you come down our maker our source of light

Creativity is at its height

Blackness you shield our nakedness 

See and bare our weaknesses

Darker the berry sweeter the soul

Black skin all that gold melanin

In fashion black will never be out of fashion you see it has the ability to make you feel sexy slim slick outlines curves and bends always on trend

trend 

Mother earth bears beautiful fruit from the Blackest soil

Stop the noise of capitalist supremacy lets remind ourselves Black is ancestor the race of humanity

Black is beautiful, black is safe, black is protection, black is reflection, black is fertility womb and mother earth the soil, black is holy, Black Is growth Black Lives Matter Always did and will!

Black is infinite and goes on forever
When we close our eyes at night
Its what we share together
Black is the universe the darkness between the stars
The space that gives grace for the stars to shine far

Black is being lost without a light to guide us on our way
Black keeps us safe and hidden, until we find a brighter day
Our voice and actions are black with passion
Black is aggression to stand up for what is right
When our existence is being lessened
Black is not being able to see what is in front of our eyes
It allows us to feel what is in our hearts
Black is humanity from the inside

De dónde eres?

“¿De dónde eres?”

“No pero en serio, ¿de dónde?”

¿Y a ti qué mas te da?

Por qué me miras con tanto recelo?

Y por favor para de tocarme el peo.

Qué ves cuando me miras?

Acaso te molesta mi melanina?

Sé que algunas personas solo son curiosas,

otras incluso quieren ampliar su conocimiento,

y no se como hacerles ver que el color de mi piel no es objeto de su entretenimiento.

La gente se sorprende cuando hablo de ataques raciales en el siglo XXI,

De hipocresía y de discriminación.

Cómo si fuese posible borrar así como así más de 400 años de opresión.

Gente que dice:

“Pues eres guapa para tener una piel tan oscura”

Yo les miro pensando que probablemente no tengan cura.

“Hablas un español fetén”

No sé, Será porque yo he nacido aquí también.

“No soy racista, tengo varios amigos negros”,

Si empezamos así, mal iremos. Y no me valen debates, discusiones ni peros.

“Tu apellido es muy difícil de pronunciar”, de pequeña mis amigas me decían,

mientras veíamos una película en la que ninguna cara se parecía a la mía.

“La persona más cualificada debería quedarse con el puesto”

“Exacto, si trabajas lo suficiente tu también puedes tener éxito”

Como si todos empezásemos la carrera desde el mismo punto de partida,

Como si tú también hubieses sufrido el racismo en tu piel día a día.

A pesar de que sabemos que la raza es una construcción social

Aún tenemos que salir a las calles a pedir

Déjame respirar.

Por mucho que lo intento no le veo el sentido,

No existe en ninguna otra parte,

Da igual qué te hayan contado, o lo que tú te hayas creído.

Observa, por favor, los pájaros en la calle.

Cada uno con una forma, un color, un distinto detalle.

Volando por el mismo cielo, comiendo de la misma tierra.

Sin caer en distinciones y categorías que no valen la pena.

Sin creerse superiores por no ser negro, gay o mujer.

Igual de ellos también tenemos algo que aprender.

Esto son algunos ejemplos de lo que nos ha tocado aguantar,

pero podría pasarme horas hablando de falta de diversidad,

racismo institucional y represión policial.

Cuando veo en las noticias la violencia injustificada,

Como si tener la piel oscura significase no valer nada

Como si de verdad ser negro fuese estar a otro nivel,

No puedo evitar preguntarme,

Es el ser humano el único animal que no ve más allá de la piel?

Do you ever question the origin and nature of words?

Where do they come from? How do we come to associate them with the images we paint in our heads for them? I wonder.

So I dug through some dictionaries, looking for Black:

Some define it as a colour that lacks brightness and absorbs light without reflecting it, other definitions relate it to populations characterised by dark skin.
Is this it? It seems.

But then I dug deeper, and found even more:

Is black even a colour? Someone says no.

“In a technical sense, it’s a shade – and so is white… and nothing can be pure black or white,
except for the depths of a black hole or the most unfiltered of sunlights.”

Is it too crazy to think this could be applied in real life?
What if we learnt to unlearn what we know and apply new meaning and order to this world?

Something to think about before you form your next words.

More Power to You.

Black is power
black is the ability to be oneself
black is love
black is known
black is not being put on a shelf
black is anything you want it to be
black is harmony
black is soul black is hope it’s what we all need
There’s no hate we don’t discriminate against anybody
black is everything they want to be

black is the oceans and black is the sea they come together in our hour of need
we’ve got people lining up and down the streets
To help us reach our goal and tell the story that needs to be told
We are strong
And we know how to survive
We move past all the strife
We are pure beauty
We are all so unique
Black is pure black is culture black is melanin
Black is pride we don’t have to hide from anything
Black is being able to show them that you’re not scared and you love your refection
Black is safe black is warmth black is community
Black is brave
Won’t just sit and take any hate
Everyone is like a bit family
We don’t that lightly
We are strong
We know how to survive
We move past all the stove
We are pure beauty
We are all so unique
We are strong
We know how to survive
We move past all the strife
We are pure beauty
We are all so unique

You can write stories like Anansi or Othello
Lead like Garvey or Selassie
Entertain and enlighten like Oprah or Angelou
Make music like Beyonce or Big Narstie
Act like Octavia or Viola
Denzel or Oyelowo
Punch like Adams, Joshua or Buatsi
Score like Sterling or Aluko
Inspire like Obama, Abbott or Sir Learie
Fight like Doreen Lawrence or Olaudah Equiano
Or race like Hamilton or Linford Christie
Lets be done with the stereotypes of what it means to be black in Western society
And teach our kids the colour of your skin shouldn’t determine who you can and
cannot be. Be black, be bold, and most of all be free.