I dunno i remember when there were novels about black ease, the few of them published, they were often denounced as fake and not real enough and i think that is missing from the discussions around cultural products that center black trauma

This convo feels like ppl talking past each other and also like just saying the same things. And i get it and agree that theres some really shitty damaging stuff out there pretending to be important or that theres edification in suffering

But pls talk to black artists who were making stuff pre 2012. They often tried. And got told by ppl, black and white, that if there was no suffering it wasnt authentically black. Like that was an accepted criticism and reason to pan a project up until v recently

I just wish we could get to the point of saying its capable for a black person to make a bad project about slavery or racism but not every project about slavery or racism is inherently bad. And assuming there can only be joy or joy is the highest measure is a product of the

Scarcity thinking that says the most important subject a black person can speak on is slavery. The insistence on extremes are both limitations

Seriously if you are new to reading black authors or if you are one who only started working recently—read ppl from 15, 20, 40 yrs back. Look for yr lineage and elders. So many debates that are new to you have been had before, by ppl smarter than all of us.

That maybe sounds snide (blaame the cahaca) but i mean it v sincerely and am talking to myself as much as to the ether that is twitter