"We are not asking for White privilege... we are not asking to be included in this cycle of systemic injustice."

While she screams against "White privilege", cries racism and rails against police brutality in concept...

When she says "we" she refers only to Chinese...

She doesn't even realize how much she is misrepresenting this situation... lying to herself.

The conversation is only representative of a cry for special consideration, not blanket accountability and blind justice.

This is what "we" face... a group that large, formed that quickly, that only surfaces when someone is threatened with judgment for violating "us".

Where were they, where was she, when "we" were being assaulted, arrested, murdered all around her.

Why was she not outraged.

We are all human beings with the same right to life, liberty and justice. To believe that we have separate categories and therefore deserve separate degrees of those, is racism.

This is racism.

‪#‎NoMoreBS‬

Open your eyes... protect your neck.

Akai Gurley. Say his name.

~ Grey

carbonfibreme_sayitLOUD_black_and_proud_black_header.png

These concepts have evolved over many late night conversations... born out of pain and love and laughter. As a Black woman and a Spanish language teacher, it was quite natural that my sister would translate "Say it loud, I'm Black and I'm proud" to Spanish. This and that 30 Rock episode starring Tracy Morgan, prompted me to research how to say "Black" in every language.

“I’ve learned the word ‘black’ in every language, just so I know when to be offended. Russian “tcherny,” Korean “heug-in [hooking],” dolphin “eeee eeee eee eeee.””

— Tracy Jordan, 30 Rock: Season 4: Episode 17

Source: UnlikelyWords.com [*hooking edited to "heug-in" or "흑인"]

I came across an abundance of enthusiastic databases of ethnic slurs (for the sake of academic research, of course..). Digging a little deeper, I found that Black people were often called a term that was rooted in racist etymology by the "majority" of that country (e.g., derivative of slave, non-believer). I was on the hunt for what we called ourselves around the globe...a color in some cases... a tribe in others. The time frame deliberately spanned beyond the "transatlantic slave" era. This activity led me inward to a memory of my father, who, during parent's weekend, drove around my small New England college campus blasting James Brown's song, "Say it loud, I'm Black and I'm proud!" I've only begun to scratch the surface on what identifying and celebrating Blackness means to me, as an American, as a woman and as a person raised in a third culture *mix of Black and Korean.

Our translation of "Black" in our "Black in Every Language" design:

Black – English
Negro – Spanish
Noir – French
Nwa – Haitian Creole
Oji – Igbo
Dudu – Yoruba
Preta – Portuguese
Nyeusi – Swahili

Whatever the language, we encourage all to #sayitLOUD! We would love to hear your thoughts! Connect with us on twitter at @MultiPATRIOT or @populistdemand.

Thank you for your time.

~ Onjena Yo

[For the folks in the cheap seats passing notes, you can be proud, too... Black is beautiful, too... Black lives matter, too... Black girls rock, too... but it ain't always about you, too...]

BLACK: SAY IT LOUD Design Series by Onjena Yo

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