13th Highlights: Who is Black?
BRJA 13th of the Month events have long been a space of rich conversation, connection, and learning. We are excited to share highlights from our 13ths here in the Sandbox. Come back monthly on the Saturday after the 13th for highlights and reflections on the most recent event.
In October’s 13th of the Month event, we noted that through a white racial framing, “Black” has historically been seen as a monolithic category in the US . However, Black immigrant groups as well as African Americans whose ancestors were enslaved on these shores have rightfully insisted on the country’s recognition of their distinct historical and cultural identities. With Haitians currently being targeted by racist lies, with Kamala Harris’s “Blackness” being debated, and with the very concept of Blackness and Black humanity being dissected, we asked, what does the question “Who is Black?” mean for solidarity and for keeping all our communities safe in an anti-Black society?
Below are some excerpts from the first part of our conversation. We hope you enjoy them – and make plans to join us for upcoming 13th of the month events.
On the need for solidarity…
I am a product of Black identity that is global in nature. This is why I’m a pan-Africanist. And I understand that in our history as a people there were many different ethnic groups among us. But in this day and this time, we must unify….We need to tell the colonizers “your time is up.” And so I stand here today as a person who really wants to see the African diaspora coalesce so we can set our own freedom agenda.
— PANELIST BROTHER MERRICK MOSES
On the need to name race and to see Blackness as power and pride….
I’ve noticed a lot of young people saying things like “I don’t like to use the word Black…. I don’t want to say race. ..I don’t want to be defined by my race.” ….
….it feels like there’s a lack of pride in who we are.…how do we get young people to a place where they can see their Blackness as power, as wonderful, as part of this huge collective that in many ways white people don’t have?
— PANELIST WENDY SHAIA, Ed.D
How understanding Blackness as a cultural identity can connect us to the above….
…we tend to conflate racial identity with cultural identity. We act as if those are interchangeable or as if they are the same thing to the extent that race is actually a legal construct which is temporal which means it is a reaction to power in some ways.
The cultural identity piece is more generational, and is that part where we find that sense of pride.
—PANELIST SHAWN BEDIAKO, PhD
Catch the entire discussion, moderated by BRJA’s Erica Taylor, PhD, here: 13th Series: Who is Black? (October 2024)
