On this, the last Wednesday of Black History Month 2019, I want to honor my melanated brethren and sistren.   It’s been a tough BHM.  We had to talk about why blackface is bad.  There were actual calls for the Klan to ride again, we got a J. Lo Motown tribute, and Clarence Thomas retirement rumors scared the crap out of everybody whose politics are left of George H.W. Bush.

But the month wasn’t entirely bad.  Colin Kaepernick got a well deserved settlement from the NFL, Billy Porter snatched all of our edges on the red carpet, and then Regina King and Spike Lee applied soothing salve to our scalps by taking home top honors in their respective categories.

We needed those wins.  We needed them like we need air.  We needed them because anti-blackness is a real thing in the year of our Lord 2019.  The ever-increasing darkness of the world is trying to eclipse the beauty that our blackness possesses.  Despite what you may have seen on the news, darkness is not synonymous with blackness.  Darkness is the fading or the absence of light.  But blackness absorbs the light.  We carry the light inside of us.

Our blackness is bright.  It is briliant. It is beautiful. We are bright.  We are brilliant. We are beautiful.  I love us for real.

Happy BHM!

Mama Radford