Black Ally?
Definition:
Ally - 1. to unite or be united, esp. formally, as by treaty, confederation, or marriage
2. (transitive; usually passive) to connect or be related, as through being similar or compatible
Black —1. word that describe or name the dark-skinned peoples of sub-Saharan Africa and their descendants—have had a complex social history in the United States.
Open Letter To Black Allies and Ally Term Users:
Dear Black ally term users,
I thank-you for your interest in being my ally; however, you cannot be my ally. My blackness is not a choice. To be my ally you would have to be married into my skin and the burdens that being black carries in this world. You do not have to struggle with identity or placement value in this world. The placement and underwritten privilege has been paralleled in the laws that you forefathers created in your favor from the birth of this nation. This society that was never developed with my prosperity in mind because I was still a slave while back door meetings were being held in the house that the picking of cotton was funding.
At the times of the birth of this nation, my people were slaves building the connectors, fabrics, and base needed to support a country whose stripes were being painfully embedded upon my back. Your empathy and sympathy that has been built out of sorrow, regret, or genuine acknowledgement is solely that, acts of kindness to recognize a viewpoint that will never be yours.
You have not been married into a life of blackness. How could you? To be so, would mean that you have woken black. To be so, is to be the teacher of history into your young as they grow into a coded world of multiple layers of rules that may or may not lead to their death according to those around you whose power has been predetermined due of a lack of melanin in their skin that defines their worth in this world as more than the value of a black boy. You do not understand the stress of being black in America on a daily basis. You have not seen the frustration of gentrification and economic classist development that keeps that haves- having and our schools being ripped from our communities. You can’t understand the horror of trying to teach your sons and daughters the fine line difference of moments between being humble saving your life and being resistant saving your dignity. We do not get to opt-in whether we teach our sons and daughters how to choose their deaths and stomach the residue of violence that has been hash-tagged? Your sweat and tears are needed. We welcome you to the resistance. We love your engagement but placement of the term ally is a value that is too high when you can never truly be an ally to my existence.
This chalk that defines the lines between black bodies and police is a reality of the circumstances of years of distrust that faces that gathered in creating this paradise of freedom never gathered with the original intent of the black in mind. So yes, we struggle against those that refuse to allow us equality of value and peace of mind. My beautifully bold blackness is not a choice of friendship. It is a magnificent bond of melanin bound to my core DNA that defines who I am to my community. This blackness can’t be allied with or to because you can never be black. My blackness not a pretty choice that can be labeled or given value by your parallel wants to make your self feel equal in a struggle that you have never truly endured in equal depths.
Sincerely,
One Beautiful Black Soul
#UrbanThoughtsPoetry