The following is an excerpt from my upcoming body of work.

“By identity, I have to deal with a lot of discomfort. And by system design, I deal with disproportionately more discomfort. All this discomfort, all this oppression, suppression, and degradation—and I still don’t have armor that preserves what separates me from you. 

June 2020

Everyone else finally saw all I had been knowing. The plight of black people now suddenly at the forefront of everyone's mind and screens. Beyond the black squares, I saw people start to see our humanity for the first time. It led me to a deeper understanding of the social death black people have lived through for centuries. What everyone else has only just now begun to understand, I’ve known for lifetimes and generations. This abrupt reckoning gave me a series of realizations.

I am reckoning with my obsession with freedom and no matter what I think, someone else has to give it to me. I don’t have it because somebody doesn't want to give it to me.