The Berry…
One of the common expressions, amongst other African Americans, I came upon as a globe-trotting Army brat was “the Blacker the Berry, the Sweeter the Juice.” I am sure the roots of this expression were to bring into balance the self-hatred impregnated in the spirit of all African descendants, which I always found amusing since I was programmed to think my skin color was bad as tanning salons became one of the boom businesses of the last 4 decades. Fortunately skin bleaching cream sales have been on the decline since James Brown added his rally of “Say It Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud” to the Black Power movement.
While in some circles “black” is demonized, but every retailer looks forward to Black Friday…this made me always wonder about the definition of schizophrenia, but…my skin is a shade of Brown and my classification is Black so Black I am and I am relieved…
In the shallow and narrow minds which associate color with leadership, twhiteness has been equated with rightness…yet when the cookie crumbles, albeit corporate, municipal or social, a Black is called in to “fix it.” Of course oft times the “fix” is an attempt at dumping the blame of the preceding leadership, but as one truth that emanated from the slavery era is, “good Black don’t crack.”
Paint it won’t shame it as we have been gifted with a survival gene deeply programmed into our DNA to survive.
All that we have been blessed with, from birth, is glory and glory be…it’s on me! […and me is we, ouioui?]
