Black

I'm sure you've noticed by now that most of my posts are either for or about black people, being black, and general black behaviour.

This is not because I have some sort of dislike for black people, it's just that there are a very many things about black people that I myself as a black person cannot understand. And I think being an insider in these things makes me more open to general blackness amongst ourselves as a black nation.

I for one, am a very proud black person. I am not in any way ashamed of anything that I do or not do as a black person. What I say, how I say it, what I listen to, how I speak. Those are not the things that define my blackness. My blackness is not defined by any one thing. My accent is sometimes not black. My being able to speak so many different South African languages doesn't confine me to one particular accent. I don't sound Zulu when I speak English but I know I am. I don't have to sound anything to be anything.

Having said that, I have a problem with black people who chose to completely turn their backs on their blackness. Their having short curly hair. Having skin darker than other races. Asses bigger than most. Noses more profound.

All these things are what we as a black people tend to dwell upon - what we don't have; the negative side of being black. But what about all the positives with which we have a natural upper-hand over any other race?

How many people in South Africa can say they can speak over three languages at any given time without flinching? I mean, in one sentence, your average black person can use 3-4 languages easily. And it's second nature to us. Yet you find thousands of black people who chose to stick to one language - English. Why? Same applies to people who chose to stick to just one language even though there's a whole palate of languages to chose from.

As much as I admire those people for not wanting to lose their identity, it wouldn't hurt to try something else.

It seems as time goes on, more and more of the world is becoming one thing. Where you can't tell the difference between a South African and somebody from halfway around the world. All this thanks to the media -TV, magazines, and the internet. We're becoming more and more cross-cultural. Nothing wrong with that except when people lose who they are along with their natural hair.

I don't know what it is about hair that fascinates me... For some reason, hair to me symbolises a lot about a black person. Whether you're male or female, it doesn't matter.

Deciding to have dreads wasn't a decision I took lightly. I had had every other hairstyle you can possibly imagine. My dreads mean something to them, especially having had them for so long, they've kinda grown on me.

Anyway... if you chose not to have real hair on your head, I can learn understand that.

I'm not narrow-minded or anything. I can fully understand your need as a black woman to look like 78 million other black women all over the world and have plastic hair sown into your head and all that.

I totally understand.

It's the pressure. Pressure from everywhere. If you don't look like them, they think something's wrong with you. Shit, you end up feeling like something's wrong with you. So you conform. I understand that.

I'm not saying everyone should walk around with afros and wear stuff they made themselves.

The thing about hair is that, it is one of the most important parts of a person that has to be in order. If that's messed up, you're not really sure what to make of a person. So your spending 12 hours getting fake hair attached to your head is totally forgivable.

Though there are some black people (women especially) who go through all these measures not to 'fit in' but all in an effort to run away from their blackness, they don't wanna be associated with being black.

They swear to never ever date a black man, to only live in the white suburbs, have white friends, speak only English, and totally neglect their blackness.

Why?

I don't understand that.

There's a worldwide craze of white men wanting to be with black women, and some even go as far as marrying them, and you wanna look like what they're running away from? Starving yourself because your butt's too big? Says who? Is it the same TV channel that shows you "beautiful" skinny white women 90% of the time?

There are women all over the world who would sell their houses to have a big round black ass. You have that naturally. You were born with it. It's the one thing you can be proud of having 'inherited' that (if anything) truly makes you black.

I love my blackness. I don't know about you. I love everything about it. Not only is black beautiful. Black is everything to me.


I love that I as a black person, can adapt to any situation you throw me into. I can hang with black people as much as I can hang with any other race. I can go anywhere I want and do anything I want. I love that about my blackness. Any other race would make headline news if they did the same.

I have some friends who would wanna attack me for this. But I really don't care. I am who I am and this is me. If you knew me well enough you'd understand.

What makes you ashamed of being black?