It’s ironic, that those who choose to use disrespectful views have the audacity to rebuke the beauty of sentiments that we have proven to be self evident and true, before we all inevitably fade to- Black.

I often sense you all, marching and moving in vehemence, looking to cling to what shades of grey we are afforded in this often black and white world. Where we’ve seen calamity at the hands of police who abuse their authority, and Institutions that classify man by hue somehow forgetting that we are only ever despite our shades- hu man.

Here we are now: entertainers, leaders, and creators of a world vision that is as confounding as it is astonishing. Truthfully, I understand the confusion with regards to how America has chosen to view the ones that built and nourished it. And truthfully, I can’t imagine that we’d appear as anything less than supernatural, for we were at once so alienated as to be able to be E. T. in the eyes of a mass media we now own.

And so, when this year’s Black History Month is underway, and the theme revolves around observance of “African Americans In Times of War,” let’s not act like we have not collectively been defying the insurmountable for some time now. And let’s not act like perhaps it’s not about past time for things to have come so far in a fight that has played out too long for us to accept anything less than complete and total respect. But before we move forward, we must take heed of the present time’s shortcomings.

At times I look around and observe the strange fruits of our labor indeed, confusion and forgetfulness. Stranger in media res, who like the dreamers in America persisted in the midst of animosity. There’s a particular group of people that are only missed somehow, once they’re gone, and I think it’s about time we change that.

With regards to the many overdue movements now underway this year, America has absolutely bastardized women of color for some time, and has absolutely no future and business existing should it not recognize what real lies, standards of beauty, and false expectations it has perpetuated for so long. We must admit, that Black History Month is futile so long as it remains a narrative solely choosing to chronicle “his” story, because surely, there are generations of black women who have laid the foundation for the very days that are in our lives. I find it only necessary that this becomes common knowledge, and as the celebratory spirit of our times is underway, that it is regarded with the utmost respect and never forgotten.

Like how at the root of every complex problem lies a radical, so too, do the most vehement of activists rest in a shallow slumber anticipating awakening to a world as peaceful as Martin on the same night he had a dream. Where we were once oppressed by denouncers, times have surely changed. Now, it is us, women and men, who united, should maneuver with a march as maintained as time’s stereotypes and sacrifice as sincere as love, no longer looking for underground railroads to voice what trains of thought we have.

As revolutions should not be televised and unknown forces get to moving some known objects, be nothing if not blatantly black and proud.