Good morning!

Good morning to your joy, good morning to your peace, good morning to your humanity.

Good morning to Black folks just trying to live. Good morning to us thriving-not just surviving.

I love you.

My Black is joy.
My Black is power.
My Black is freedom-whether you give me what I am owed or not.
My Black is beautiful.
My Black is human.
My Black contains multitudes.

Our Black has always been too complicated for America-but she will never make me ashamed.

America will never succeed in turning this blessing of melanin into my shame or my fear.

Do you know my ancestors? We can not be defeated.

I sowed diamonds in my back yard
My bowels deliver uranium
the filings from my fingernails are
semi-precious jewels
On a trip north
I caught a cold and blew
My nose giving oil to the arab world
I am so hip even my errors are correct

-Nikki Giovanni, “Ego-tripping”

I revel and rejoice in what my ancestors built and the strength God gave me today.

Black people, there is NOBODY like us.

Never has been, and never will be.

They stay mad about it, don’t they? Let them stay mad.

YOU? Just stay being your baddest Black self. I love you. I love us.

Black folks, I dare you to just stand in the mirror today and remind yourself who the **** you ARE and what you come from.

WE ARETHEBADDEST