What I Love About Being Black

When you’re raised as the only Black family for miles, in a place like Ogden Utah that has very little racial diversity, as a Black person, you get used to being ignored. The book Invisible Man should have had a sequel titled, “Invisible Children: the training guide for colored kids who are confused by white avoidance.” This erasure and feeling of invisibleness isn’t just unique to my upbringing. For Black individuals, the erasure of culture, complexity of identity outside of stereotypes, and a lack of Black history taught outside of oppression or slavery creates barriers to a healthy sense of self and fuels the biases that keeps society inequitable.

I was recently inspired to contribute a new narrative to the concept of Blackness by asking my friends and family who are Black to answer the simple question “What do you love about being black?” Their answers were inspirational, funny, informative, universal, as well as unique, and a balance to the traumatic images, negative stories, an imbalanced emphasis on Black pain, Black violence, Black erasure, and Black oppression shared on a daily basis. Those stories are important to share, but they are not the only narrative in the bigger story about Black culture.

The best way to change the status quo and create true understanding and belonging is to redefine narratives. This episode is one small step towards that redefinition. Take a listen to writers, an actor, public speaker, entrepreneurs, and makers who share their stories about what they love about being Black, in a world and society that many times makes it difficult to affirm ourselves.