To Be Negro in This Country: A Week in Black History

I shared this on my IG last night and I felt the need to share it here:

“To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time.” James Baldwin.

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“To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time.” James Baldwin. There is something special about this week in Blackness: James Baldwin (painted here by Beauford Delaney in 1945) Benjamin Mays, Ralph Bunche, and Pres. Barack Obama’s birthdays, the anniversary of the loss of Toni Morrison, and the anniversary of the voting rights bill being signed in 1965 as well as numerous other events all coincide with the 1st seven days of August. What Baldwin says is true. Being what they called negro then and what we call Black now and to pay even the least amount of attention is to be enraged. Unfortunately that rage, the rage of a legacy of centuries of injustice, is written off by critics: folks who would call us “ungrateful” today and “uppity” in James Baldwin’s day. They conflate our calls for equality as an exchange of supremacy rather than a dismantling of it. They call our pursuit for civil rights a riot when Rev Dr. MLK, Jr called a riot “the language of the unheard.” which Black folk have been for too long: unheard. They confused our chants for our lives to matter as the only lives that matter, not realizing that matter is the minimum, and that in a country with the promise of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, the Matter in Black Lives Matter only addresses the life part. As we remember the voices who came before us, whether they sang “go down Moses”, “lift ev’ey voice”, “we shall overcome”, or “we gon’ be alright”, whether they chanted “freedom now” or “Black Lives Matter” we join in the fight, a fight that will one day quell our rage. #reclaimedlivin #blm #blacklivesmatter #jamesbaldwin #blackbloggers #blackcreatives #blackwriters #blackbloggersunited #browngirlbloggers #blackblogger #blackculture #blackgirlswhoblog #blackcontentcreators #Melaninbloggers #blackswhoblog #blackcreatives #writer #fashionblogger #Styleblogger #bblogger #lifestyleblogger #phillyblogger #21ninety

A post shared by WHITNEY ALESE (@thereclaimed) on Aug 5, 2020 at 7:20pm PDT

There is something special about this week in Blackness: James Baldwin (painted here by Beauford Delaney in 1945) Benjamin Mays, Ralph Bunche, and Pres. Barack Obama’s birthdays, the anniversary of the loss of Toni Morrison, and the anniversary of the Voting Rights Bill being signed in 1965, as well as numerous other events, all coincide with the 1st seven days of August.

What Baldwin says is true. Being what they called negro then and what we call Black now and to pay even the least amount of attention is to be enraged. 

Unfortunately, that rage, the rage of a legacy of centuries of injustice, is written off by critics: folks who would call us “ungrateful” today and “uppity” in James Baldwin’s day. They conflate our calls for equality as an exchange of supremacy rather than a dismantling of it. They call our pursuit for civil rights a riot when Rev Dr. MLK, Jr called a riot “the language of the unheard.” which Black folk have been for too long: unheard. They confused our chants for our lives to matter as the only lives that matter, not realizing that matter is the minimum and that in a country with the promise of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, the Matter in Black Lives Matter only addresses the life part.

As we remember the voices who came before us, whether they sang “go down Moses”, “lift ev'ry voice”, “we shall overcome”, or “we gon’ be alright”, whether they chanted “freedom now” or “Black Lives Matter” we join in the fight, a fight that will one day quell our rage.