Happy Black Futures (This Month And Beyond!)

Instead of Black History Month, Some Context is embracing Black Futures (this month and beyond!). This is a call to consider the ways in which Black history informs our future. Yes, there are People of Color, Black people, and Indigenous people in the future. Black history is full of pain and oppression, love and joy, resistance and innovation, and more! - all at the same time! And so to only center Black pain, struggle, and trauma during Black History month is to ignore the beauty of the Black experience, and erase hundreds of years of folks asserting their humanity.

What does it mean to be born in an oppressive system meant to break you and instead of breaking, you imagine a better way and end up exposing structural, institutional, and cultural failings along the way?

This process helps to dismantle oppression for other marginalized groups, and in turn, pushes us to consider the ways that our struggles are interconnected. We need each other.

As we celebrate Black Futures (this month and beyond) collectively, consider the following questions. The questions are separated by identity to push Black people to center wellness, connection, and celebration, and allies to do some critical thinking about Anti-Blackness, oppression, and their own humanity. We all have a role in racial equity movements. You may, of course, dive into all the questions as they feel relevant regardless of your identity.

"All you are ever told in this country about being black is that it is a terrible, terrible thing to be. Now, in order to survive this, you have to really dig down into yourself and re-create yourself, really, according to no image which yet exists in America. You have to impose, in fact—this may sound very strange—you have to decide who you are, and force the world to deal with you, not with its idea of you." -- James Baldwin

Questions for Black people:

• What do you need (emotional, spiritual, physical or other) to feel good? What is the goodness you're seeking?

• What are your favorite stories from your Black elders? What lessons do they teach you?

• What do you love about being Black? Does this contradict messages you saw growing up? How does it feel to realize this?

• What daily wellness practices are supporting you during these times? How can you weave more of those practices into your days and weeks?

• Who are your people? Who can you lean on when things get tough?

• What inspires you? Makes you feel alive? What do you need to access inspiration weekly?

• How do you want to celebrate and adorn yourself? What will you do to document your beauty?

• Can you hear the inner knowing from your body? What is your body trying to tell you? How can you slow down enough to hear?

• Can you release the need for perfectionism in your life? In your activism? Why/ why not?

Questions for Black Allies:

• How does racism differ from Anti-Blackness? Does the word Anti-Blackness make you uncomfortable? Why?

• Why are Black people understood as dangerous even as systems of slavery, segregation, and violence against Black people have been the most brutal and violent of all?

• In what ways does history inform our current realities? What role have the people in your lineage played historically in systems of oppression? What would you like to do with that knowledge?

• What have oppressors done to their own humanity by enforcing oppression historically and contemporarily? Who is the oppressor inside of you? What healing do you need to work through this exploration?

• What does it mean to express your full humanity? How do you know?

• What do you need (emotional, spiritual, physical, educational, or other) to help dismantle racism and more specifically, Anti-Blackness?

• What practices will you put in place to truly listen to Black people and amplify Black voices?

• How will you celebrate and love on Black people all year?

• Can you release the need for perfectionism in your life? In your activism? Why/ why not?