This week I wrote two short entries that I didn't feel were complete blogs worth posting alone, but I figured since I have them both, I'd put them together to share some thoughts I've had this week regarding Blackness.
Entry 1
I feel like I want to step away from all the Ferguson coverage. I ignored it for three days because I didn't feel I had the emotional volume at the time to handle it. Now that I’m in it I want to forget it all and pretend it’s not happening. But I also feel like I need to keep it in my face. To remind me how things are. To make me do something.
Being Black feels so hopeless sometimes. Walking around with a reputation that was never really true, and a history that comes as a result of kidnapping, oppression and discrimination.
If this baby inside me was a little boy I don’t think I’d be able to stop crying. I’d be inconsolable thinking about the fragility of his life.
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Entry 2
I saw the preview for the 2014 version of Annie this past weekend in theaters when I went to see Guardians of the Galaxy. I was surprised at how much it affected me. I was SO HAPPY to see a little Black Annie whose curls weren't ringlets but kinky tight curls. I know inclusion of Black faces in the media, in all their varieties,is important, but it hadn’t struck me until I saw the preview that I was so touched by it, that somewhere inside I needed a little Black Annie. Kudos to Overbrook Entertainment and Will Smith for making this happen.