March has filled many of us with alarm at soaring commodity prices and the looming specter of total war, but such are the pretensions of our White privilege. Last week marked the end of Black History Month, a period of great labors for our nation’s most dynamic and productive demographic. I learned this in The Washington Post from an author who has a contemplative project called Black Liturgies:
Every year, what is intended to be a time of remembrance and storytelling becomes a month of additional labor — usually with very little notice — for Black people. It becomes a season when we must sell our stories and ideas to sate the appetites of White folk who want to feel as though they’ve done the right thing…
For 28 days, every Black person in America is expected to shape-shift into a historian. We ask this of no other race…
According to this esteemed publication, democracy dies in darkness. However, that’s also the condition under which items disappear through the smashed windows of cars in my neighborhood. On a chilly February night, I racially profiled a black man stopping to indulge his fascination with the automotive design of a 2002 Mercury Sable. He heard a pistol rack and looked up in terror and confusion. I stood on my front porch and inquired: “Yo homie, whatcha doin?”
Blinded by racism, I hadn’t noticed he was wearing a tweed jacket with leather arm patches, a crisp white button-up shirt with a subtle brownish tie, and khaki pants. He’d shape-shifted from a car enthusiast into an historian.
I tucked the gun back behind my waist and received a fascinating lecture about how America’s space program wouldn’t be possible if George Washington Carver hadn’t invented peanut butter. As he concluded, the exhaustion became visible on his face, the lines beneath his pensive eyes betraying the spiritual toll of relentless war on black bodies. I paid no heed as relief splashed over me like a gentle wave on a moonlit sea. It felt like I’d finally done the right thing.
I’m proud to officially announce my candidacy for the office of Dogcatcher.
