The following definitions are how I have come to understand being Pro-black versus having pride in one’s blackness.

Black Pride: Pride in one’s skin and/or cultural heritage. This can be on an individual or a communal level.

Pro-Black: the deeper conscious effort to empower black people other than outside of ourselves. This is always based on community, whether it is political, economic, social, and/or spiritual.

For starters, I hope this article opens up a conversation about these two terms. They are used interchangeably today, but I believe this has caused the lines between them to be erased. Throughout my own…

In May of this year, I took a fast-paced course on South African literature. Despite originally being designed as a study abroad opportunity, I gained so much knowledge on history, culture, writing, and myself through the simple lens of a computer screen and its camera. I connected with South African literature in a way that I could not with British lit or even American lit. Maybe that’s because, from the beginning, South African literature is multicultural. Maybe it’s because I have been fed British and American literature all my life, and now I could choose something different. Maybe it’s simply…

On November 8th, 2020, my grandfather passed away. He had been diagnosed with COVID-19 a week or so before this happen, and given his already dire health conditions my family and I braced for the worst, but it didn’t seem to help when the worst came. Stephen Nathaniel Perry, born in Berbice, Guyana, had given me many lessons over the twenty years I had come to know him. His eighty-nine years of life gave him a wisdom that he was determined to pass on, either through stories or action, and he did.

My grandfather and his family, including my father…

Spirituality: the quality with being concerned with the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things.

Religion: the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling powers, especially a personal God or gods.

Philosophy: the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence, especially when considered as an academic discipline.

Whether others do so or not, I tend to draw parallels between the three words above, spirituality, religion, and philosophy. They are truly mirrors of each other, but not the plain kind most would keep in their homes. Instead, they are the mirrors someone can…

Here’s why you should accept your destiny.

To begin, recognize the privilege you have in this very moment. The privilege that allows you to ponder this question. The privilege that allows you to open your computer or phone and read this article. The ability to take time out of your day to wonder about your purpose, or whether or not you have a purpose, is a privilege in my eyes. To me, it means you have either a certain amount of stability in your life or time to not only think, but to get to know yourself. …

Can We Really All Be One?

Pan-Africanism: the political and cultural belief that all people of African descent have common interests should be unified.

Pan-Africanism is perhaps one of the lesser known black movements of today, despite being much older than what many people now recognize as the Black Lives Matter movement. Many people know of Marcus Garvey, the founder of Pan-Africanism, but beyond that there is barely a whisper of knowledge. The names Kwame Nkrumah, Robert Mugabe, and King Sobhuza II, are among the many that are not known outside of the Pan-African community, and for what reason?

For…

Winter has come back again despite being Spring,
and with its return are old feelings,
old things.
Ghosts of the past,
the dead are whispering.
Not my dead,
but the dead musings of old flings,
resentment it seems.

I’m detached yet I feel attacked.
Insults seemingly made about me are broadcasted for the world to see.
It’s left me confused, bazadee.
I could hardly sleep before but now I can’t sleep a wink.
I won’t even say your name because you’re a nobody.
Disgusting, insecure, weak!
Don’t you ever speak on what’s mine or me.

You’re not above the world.
You’re…