HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (TENNESSEE VALLEY LIVING) - For Christian Mitchell, her poem “My Black” represents her personal experiences with others judging her based off the color of her skin.
It is a reminder for African American people to be proud of their skin & to wear it as a badge of honor.
— Christian Mitchell
MY BLACK
By Christian Mitchell
My Black is a badge of honor
& I wear it proudly
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I don’t care if you don’t like it
I don’t care if it intimidates you
If it has you on the edge of your seat
If it desires you to call the police
please call ‘em before I do,
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because if I do
it’ll be to save you from fists
in retaliation of injustices that don’t have anything to do with personality
or fashion
or my ability to make things happen
despite my resources scarcely existing
It has all to do with me just existing
I had an epiphany of this very moment
where my pen took over
used black ink to bring silhouette to my aggression
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brought me holy ghosts of skin
gifting me the freedom of Harriet
bearing fruit
to run over & under lines of description
on how my black can make you uncomfortable
in it’s rarest form of just being comfortable
letting it breathe
why didn’t you let him breathe?
on the day after my 25th birthday I had to watch Derek Chauvin’s knee
try to destroy my black
break George Floyd
break his daughters heart
void the hearts of the people around the world who share my black
my black got heart
illuminating with sun in marches
glistening in a fight of jurisdiction
the list of men & women that my black’s diction has to memorialize
is a spreadsheet of infinite grief
stored in a filing cabinet of my throat
I carry hope for my black
to breakthrough chokeholds of hatred
my black is the most hated
for just being black
my black
my black is not just a color
I am not a crayon
this is not Crayola
run the tapes back on how they did Ronald Greene in NOLA
disguising it as a crash
my black crashes
with the tides of lunar day
with a sky full of ancestors
& a bunch of shooting stars
if you are oblivious,
to the karma my black holds on the enormous amount of nonsense
then I pray
on your knowledge of disbelief
of my black loving back
with hands that built this nation
I’ve been waiting
on my black to defend itself
it starts by claiming the honor
wearing it proudly
& not caring if you like it.
To learn more about her poetry and the work she is doing within the community, follow her on Facebook and Instagram.
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