"To the white, privileged, the well-intentioned liberals who have studied us, slept with us, and sympathized with our struggle, and to the with-it pop academics who lived in the hood or built houses in Haiti because you know us, love us, worked and fought on our behalf, know this: All that affords you no rights and no access to this. I deeply appreciate your sympathetic, possessive, or loving service, but you cannot have this. Nope, not this, not now, not ever. You cannot have our cool-ass Black style.
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We have crawled up a long and thorny runway to get here and have the scars to prove it and the stamina to get up and demand you understand: We do not require outside help to validate or promote the existence of Black cool, nor are we about to sit back and watch our cool be traded and consumed by those who have not worn the heavy cloak of the battered and beautiful Black burden. You can’t try it on, or even pick it up. Our train of oppression is way too ornate and lengthy for you to bear. You need the height and majesty of generations of scattered collarbones to wear us. And besides, our history ain’t for sale either.
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Black folks must always educate and illuminate before we eliminate and obliterate.
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Black folks must fight to keep our cool.
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Race makes the most reasonable arguments complicated.
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I am not responsible for ‘others’ ignorance or denial about race or white privilege. I no longer carry the burden of navigating other people’s feelings. I will not be quiet for any one else’s comfort. That’s it. No more explanation and no negotiation, and yes, I am ready to fight.
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It’s not all white folks’ fault. Yes, they create, promote, and, most sadly, believe many of the narrow images projected are the Black norm, but what about Black folks? what have Black folks done to counterbalance the dangerous, stifling, and false images?
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The tragic truth is that Black acceptance in a protected white existence is temporal and easily disposable, so when Black folks are invited to the party, they might as well bring the noise."