I.
Solmaz Sharif: The knowing is the dullest part of all.
II.
The knowing is not difficult. Knowing might distress or fluster or disturb, but simply knowing the origin of the wound is not enough. Knowing the wound is red and angry and hot to the touch is not enough. Knowing the wound is bleeding is not enough. The knowing is not enough.
III.
Expecting the past brutality of chattel slavery to be somehow amplified and understood as an atrocity by forcing the powerful to look at the blood on the leaves and the blood at the root is far too optimistic considering our Black reality. The powerful rarely even see present brutality as actual brutality; why do we expect them to see past blood as anything other than something that has already dried? Regardless of the fact the blood hasn't dried—and hasn't been allowed to dry—the powerful have the privilege of looking away. The powerful have the privilege of blinking, of forgetting, of revising. In contrast, our Black reality is a reality we are not allowed to leave. We can't afford to blink or forget or revise. We have no choice but to witness; we have no choice but to know—but even our knowing is not enough.
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BORN IN BABYLON
Non-FictionMy school of indifference opened and never closed; I remained its only student. BORN IN BABYLON is a collection of short essays, fragments, prose, creative nonfiction, and other miscellany regarding Blackness, womanhood, memory, identity, and Americ...
