What a year. Grief, discontent and mourning became an all-too-familiar ritual, acting as bloodstained decor to one of the most comical and historical national elections, begging everyone to question what they believe in when all of our moral centers are being challenged. I believe in darkness. Not negativity, but the shaded hues that make up the majority of the world’s population. I believe the saying “Black is beautiful” is more than a cliche, but a call to arms subconsciously ringing — a chiming, suspended in time, slowly influencing its way into our everyday actions.
While the 2000s have been riddled with destruction, death, malice and plight, these past 16 years have also been painted with love — Black and brown love, Black and brown people loving of themselves, of others and of their individual and collective cultures, sometimes incompletely, but nonetheless intentionally.
This new era was foretold to be the time of flying cars, robot housemaids, reduced energy usage and (some even went so far as to predict) the elimination of poverty and racism. Wouldn’t you know, AIs are present among us; energy use is up but supposedly more sustainable; Jetsons cars haven’t been put on the market just yet, but self driving cars are all the rage on NPR; and poverty and racism, well, they are at an all-time high.
In America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, still an estimated 400 Black men die by force each year, roughly 40 percent make up the American prison system and, while 47 percent of Black males graduate with their respective cohort, approximately 51 percent do not.
In contrast, the 2016 Black media catalog spotlighted more people of color than ever before, much like was present in Langston Hughes’ 1920s. Blacks are again looked upon with envy and wonder, only not so exotically as seen through the eyes of colonial conquistadors, but rather as having a profound beauty that resonates from within. This beauty is being exclaimed from the mouths and hearts of Black and brown people without need for permission. Men of color are proud and present with swagger and selflessness. Women of color are poised, praised and protected, setting monumental records. LGBTQA people of color are able to wave the colorful flag high and proud. Of course, problems still remain, as the complexities of social existence may never be fully eradicated; however, an overwhelming force of brotherly and sisterly love permeates.
This past year took its toll on the universal heartbeat. The killings of Terence Crutcher and Keith Lamont Scott, the Standing Rock protests, the killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, the Dallas shooting, the election of Donald Trump, unrest in Iraq, the war in Syria, the rescue of the Boko Haram 300 … all have riddled our minds with violence and confusion. But all is not lost.
Kendrick Lamar said, “I’m tired of being tired” in his latest release “Untitled Unmastered.” It’s a sentence that sums up the unashamed wave of the pro-Black movement that has washed over us. The resistance has taken shape in protest, prose, song, film and sport with every action captured in real time. Contrary to the old adage, the revolution will be televised.
Is this really the age of the #blackgirlmagic and #blackboyjoy? Is this finally “our time”? Are Black and brown people now in vogue as Langston Hughes stated?
As we step into a new year, the stage is set and the music cued, but only time will tell.
