Happy Juneteenth!

today especially, i want to see my fellow black immigrants decenter themselves & actively dismantle the anti-Black American tropes our communities live by.

we black immigrants use the theories, languages, cultures, and entire ways of existing that we learned from Black Americans to understand our place in this country. i don't think we'd have survived this nation, white supremacy and most likely never returning home without them.

my family has absolutely no roots in this country, and it was the centuries long foundation laid by Black Americans on this occupied land that made our lives possible.

it's jarring watching the whole of the black diaspora step into this day demanding reparations when this is a distinctly Black American holiday.

our blackness does not give us unlimited access into every community. and i know black immigrants know this because we hyperventilate when someone so much as puts their toe into our cultures.

the black diaspora is stunning. but community building would be more beautiful.