We Must Invest In Our Own
The normalization of violence against Black bodies is not new, but it is still mind-boggling. As easy as I can get on social media to shop the latest release from my favorite Black-owned clothing brand, I can watch #JacobBlake being shot by slave catchers right in front of his children. This kind of access to content that’s so scarring is reprehensible, but still sadly comprehensible. As much as we problematize the media’s profiteering of Black death, we cannot be surprised considering Black death from white hands has been normalized.
For those of you that have been reading, watching and engaging with my content, you understand that my work is always building towards Black liberation. Decolonization, economic self-sufficiency and spatial independence for Black folks are guiding principles to my written and spoken word. All this being said, as we continue to navigate the two pandemics of our present, you can imagine that the ever-present threat of violence towards the Black body is alarming to me and my mission.
As we fight to find a vaccine that can treat COVID-19, the sociopolitical virus of White Supremacy continues to run rampant in our schools, workplaces and communities…
As institutions of higher education continue to research the possibility of a cure to COVID, our communities continue to fight in the streets, in the statehouse and on school boards for ways to find relief from this country’s original sin…
What does all of this mean for this moment, which sits in the midst of this movement to make #BlackLivesMatter? It means that we must invest in our own because we are who we need in times like these. It means that we must more intentionally invest back into Black.
Over the past two months, I’ve highlighted over 30 black businesses via a social media campaign called #WeMustInvestInOurOwn. Starting in July, I conducted a 21-day series that highlighted 10 Black-owned clothing brands. I used my personal platform to explain the depth and breadth of the need to “invest back into Black,” through the promotion of these brands. In August, this campaign continued with a month-long series that highlighted 25 businesses owned exclusively by Black women. I wrote a speech for each letter of the alphabet, and for each letter, a Black-woman owned business was highlighted. With over 100,000 social media impressions in August alone, these Black women owned businesses gained national exposure making this campaign truly impactful. To end the month, those same clothing brands I highlighted in July (all of which are owned by Black men) came together and financially invested into these Black-women owned businesses. In July and August, my peers and I mobilized around the idea that #WeMustInvestInOurOwn.
As we enter the third month of this campaign, I have been reflecting on how I can continue pushing the bounds of what it means to truly “invest back into Black.” I am constantly asking, what is an innovative way to communicate to my community that “we must invest in our own?” With time, I became inspired by the phrase “All Black Lives Matter”. This phrase--turned hashtag--turned social media sensation, speaks to many truths, all of which are necessary to fight for liberation from racism, whiteness and white supremacy.
This hashtag highlights the truth that in order for Black lives to truly matter, we must assassinate the respectability politic that makes the assassination of #BreonnaTaylor more palatable than the assassination of #SeanReed or #McHaleRose.
This hashtag highlights the truth that in order for Black Lives to truly matter, our fight against COVID19 must acknowledge the disproportionate impact this pandemic has on Black folks who are currently incarcerated. If we are to forget the unique struggle of our skinfolks experiencing this public health pandemic while in prison, we are abandoning the struggle of those experiencing slavery in the 21st Century, which would be antithetical to the cause we claim to be fighting.
This hashtag highlights the truth that in order for Black lives to truly matter, we must not exclude certain Black lives from mattering because their gender or sexuality does not sit firmly on the spectrum of normativity.
The lives of Black folks who are trans, nonbinary or gender nonconforming matter just as much as those who are cis-gender. The lives of Black folks who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, asexual or any other minoritized sexual identity matter just as much Black than those who enjoy the privilege of living in heteronormativity.
#AllBlackLivesMatter speaks to the truth that most Black folks would affirm: Blackness is not homogenous. Blackness is cold and it is hot; it is spicy and it is mild; it is not one but innumerable and it all matters. But while we, as a culture, claim that our Blackness cannot be placed into a box and compartmentalized, our culture does prioritize the value of certain Black lives.
In this spirit of a more radical inclusivity, radical meaning principally pure and potent, I am choosing to use this month of the campaign to highlight the life and impact of two Black trans women who have inspired me to more radically understand the phrase #WeMustInvestInOurOwn: Marsha P. Johnson and Elle Hearns.
Marsha P. Johnson was the catalyst of the Stonewall riots. Marsha “Pay It No Mind” Johnson was an unsung sheroe of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. If you say the name Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. or Malcolm X, you should also, #sayhername: Black Marsha. As an “activist, self-identified drag queen, performer, and survivor,” her identity was a protest. Furthermore, her work in advocacy of Black folks who were marginalized at the intersections of multiple identities (race, class, gender, sexuality and ability) was a revolution. It was so revolutionary that it wrote her out of most Black history books that did not acknowledge her story to be truly herstoric.
The life and legacy of Marsha P. Johnson did not stop in 1992 with a cause of death that was labeled a suicide, that still seems quite pseudo, and should have been labeled a homicide at the hands of some racially-motivated and heteronormative supremacy; no, it lived on through the life and leadership of Elle Hearns.
In the words of Patrice Cullors Brignac-Khan, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter, Elle Hearns is “utter brilliance.” Hearns, an “organizer, speaker, strategist, and writer” is also the Executive Director of the Marsha P. Johnson Institute. As a Black trans woman who has been at the forefront, and should be honored as a founder, of the Black Trans Lives Matter movement, Hearns credits Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X and Marsha P. Johnson as her “teachers.” As the Executive Director of the Marsha P. Johnson Institute, whose values state, “We are our own possibility models and we must hold ourselves accountable for our own results,” Hearns is building upon the legacy of a justice giant, Marsha P. Johnson. From her humble beginnings in Columbus, Ohio, as a community organizer, to being featured in the New York Times, Hearns has made herself heard across the world. Through Hearns, the stories that were silenced by heteronoramtive structures that herald history have been amplified across all communities and will be remembered for ages.
As a cis-gender, heterosexual, able-bodied Black man, it is my duty to use my privilege, power and platform to profess a truth that is as unadulterated with the covetousness of Eurocentrism. That means I must “invest back into Black” in the most radical of $enses, and it is why I chose to use this month of the campaign to share the stories of these Black trans women. Systems are built upon systems, thus it takes more than an individual to destroy them. It takes a cultural competency of the most incredible kind to build a movement that motions for the destruction of old systems and the construction of new ones. While my actions are not system-shifting, they aid in the development of a more inclusive cultural competency for our community. That development leads to a more dynamic and diverse understanding of what it means to be Black, and thus provides for a more socially profitable motion to “invest back into Black.”
I challenge you to step outside of an ordinary that embodies what the White Man has labeled as “normal” and dare to be evil in the eyes of whiteness, embracing a radical love for all things Black because you understand that #WeMustInvestInOurOwn. The difference between an obstacle and opportunity is your outlook, and I dare you to never look down in cowardice but continue walking with your chest up and head held high, looking into a sky of stars that shine with courage. Your actions won’t shift a system but they can shake “The Culture”, and when The Culture shakes, it sifts like seasoning and leads to a more flavorful and colorful culinary experience in which we digest a meal of social nutrients called #AllBlackLivesMatter.
Bon Appetit.
