Love Thy Neighbor
It has been said that ‘all skin folk ain’t kinfolk,’ and there is no doubt of that truth in my mind. I also believe all Black people are not the same people – and that’s food for your thought. Mark 22:39 suggests that it is essential to “love thy neighbor as you love yourself” so that we understand and embrace our differences.
Black people may share common narratives and cultural traditions, and we may all be inexplicably bound together by society’s dislocated perceptions of Blackness. However, the diverse array of socio-political identities such as race, gender, sexuality, religion, physical appearance, and class within our community are separable.
James Baldwin illustrated by Matthew White
I am more than just a Black man. I am a fashion scholar who knows fashion is a political outlet that challenges normative traditions. I am a gay man who knows Black is beautiful in my everyday life, not just during Black History Month. I am a Christian whose personal awareness and identity politics are rooted in learning from the experience of my Blackness.
I love being Black, we are beautiful and hella dope but I know we’re more than just that. And I am not the only one who agrees. All of my identities add fuel to the fire regardless of who feels uncomfortable; all of my identities set fire to a fashion system built on false conceptions, whiteness, and normative traditions.
James Baldwin argued that his race and sexuality were separable. He spoke of his experiences with discimination and of feeling like an outsider within Black culture as an openly gay man.
The prejudice he faced within his marginalized space awarded him with unique perspectives of life.
He brought good food to the table to feed the souls of Black folks, but the people starved themselves. Baldwin’s radical voice was publicly discredited due to his queerness. Yet, he continued to shed light on the invisible people all while encouraging prosperity amongst humanity.
He suggested that, to encounter oneself is to encounter the “other.” There are more parts to us than race alone, you and I both look like resilience derived from Black experiences but that does not make us the same. We were all raised in different homes and walk in different paths.
If life was as simple as loving our brothers and sisters as we love ourselves then we'd be in perfect harmony. With so much hate projected into this world it might just be hard to imagine.
But I got The Word and it is for everybody. Black people need to not only address the fact that we all are not the same, we have to dismantle “the only one” mentality that stops those of us who “make it” from extending a hand to the next man. As we acknowledge and embrace intersectionality amongst people of color, we will know that we all have something to bring to the table.
