Bunny

A slave named John is a reoccurring character in African-American folktales, especially within the antebellum period. The character’s role in a story can range from a witty man to a fool. In this particular story a snake teaches John the value of just shuttin tf up.

John was exhausted from fishin and took a nap in his fishin spot. When he woke from it he heard his name bein called. Behold it was a talkin snake, black as night. The snake musta been lonely cuz it said to the John, “I just wanna be sociable. We both black ain’t we? You might as well say we kin.” But John was so shook he ran back to tell his boss bout this snake. His boss wanted to see it wit his own eyes, & hear it wit his own ears so John led him back to the snake. When the snake saw em the snake ain’t said nan. John Boss shook his head, “You let me down, John.” He said. When he left John got down to the snake askin “Why you make me out to be a liar?” The snake said, “John, you let me down. I spoke only witchu and you had to go and tell a white man.”

The Angel Oak tree of South Carolina that once was apart of a Plantation is the gravesite of many enslaved ancestors. They considered it a bad omen for themselves for the role it played in their lives and only stepped near it out of necessity.

Given its past history there have been reports of glowing, Angel-like figures surrounding the tree and even hanging from the branches. Being once vandalized a couple reported hearing what sounded like an angry mob then turning to runaway facing a demon-like figure. This encounter is believed to be the ancestral spirits of the buried and hung Native and African-Americans bodies protecting the evergreen tree.

People to this day still visit the tree and some come and go with an eerie feeling.

*Don’t quote me, it’s a spiritual belief. link is posted, do your own research🖤*

https://charlestonterrors.com/haunted-charleston-most-haunted-places-7-angel-oak-tree/

Moses is considered an important biblical figure in African-American culture. He is seen as a powerful conjurer “doing Gods work”. In fact the African-American figure, John Domingo, wore a serpent ring where he was thought to hold his power. Just like Moses and the wonders he did with his staff. *i.e. turning his staff into a serpent.*

During slavery, taught that their treatment was a punishment by God, the story of Moses influenced our enslaved ancestors belief that God could be on our side in the fight for freedom. Moses story also strengthened religious confidence in hoodoo, an amalgamation of their own native practices, calling it “Gods work”. Hoodoo and the word of God freed our ancestors from their bondage, but White fear of Black liberation made us suppress our practices by recreating ill confidence in Gods acceptance of it. This led to leaving the will to practice behind (better yet, practicing in secret.)

The story of Moses had a big part in our liberation. Harriet Tubman even now being known as “Mother Moses”, the Moses of her people.

To get a better understanding read Zora Neale Hurstons “Moses, Man of the Mountain” written in the perspective of the original African-American beliefs.

Buffalo soldiers are African-American military. On July 28th they are celebrated for their determination and courage. As an African-American Buffalo Soldier day brings out mixed feelings. Although it is a day that shows that black people were and are more than what people tried and try to tell us we are, it is also a day of mourning and guilt.

The term Buffalo Soldier came from the Native Americans of the Great Plains. Buffalo Soldiers fought against Natives on behalf of the United States as a way to hopefully gain rights and the favor of the U.S. The U.S. has taken every chance they had to put Black and Indigenous communities against each other by bribing us with the right to be human.

I am not trying to invalidate the suffering of African-Americans back then, but to teach about our mistakes to keep them from being repeated. In fact Buffalo soldiers experienced deadly racism in the military. The courage they are celebrated for was the willingness to die rather than tolerate being dehumanized.

When July 28th of 2021 comes upon us don’t forget to mourn over the native lives lost that our ancestors murdered for some of the rights we use today instead of joining forces.

I still see African-Americans and Native-Americans repeating the mistake of our ancestors to go against rather than assist each other. And of course there were many instances where we joined for survival and those should be celebrated, but our wrongs cannot be dismissed if there is any hope for solidarity to a gaol of total freedom.

On July 28th as an African-American you can:

Inform others (free of cost)

Use www.whose.land to find out which native tribes land you’re living on and educate yourselves about those tribes (free of cost)

Use Native-land.ca to find and educate yourself about the tribal lands you are on (free of cost)

Donate to Native American communities

🌺Feminine Edition🌺

The Darkskin Woman is our grannies, our mothers, our aunties, our daughters, our nieces, and our ancestors.

She is the night sky that allows stars to shine on our backs to keep out the dark while we sleep.

Meaning she takes the heat from the fire of anti-blackness while we feel it’s warmth and choke on its smoke.

Sometimes we share her burns because we are her collateral damage, but she is still the target.

So some of us know what it’s like to be dark skinned, but not a Darkskin.

We fail the paper bag test, but the standard bandaid kinda match.

The Darkskin Woman is not responsible for her pain, but still blamed and taunted for feeling that if only she was lighter she’d be treated better.

We praise her for standing in the sun or in lime green and call it support, but we never praise her standing alone.

I love her from her blue-black to her deep brown skin.

🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎

I suck at poetry, but this is in response to the hate targeted at darkskin women. I recognize that as someone labeled as a brownskin I do not feel anti-blackness & de-feminization in full effect the way darker skinned women do even though I am still affected as a black & dark-skinned woman.

❤️Many hairstyles have become a representation of Black & Native pride and resistance in America. For Native-Americans it may be the signature long braids they wore that society pressured them to cut (as Sherman Alexie has mentioned in some of his workings). For African-Americans, it was the kinky-ness of their hair. The hairstyles and textures represented the people and lifestyles descendants of settlers saw as “savage” and “primitive”.

🖤Though the history of baby hair isn’t as widespread as the style/“trend”, it is representation of pure Afam culture. It’s a traditional style usually passed down to Afams through our mothers, community aunties, older sisters, and friends.

💚The evolution started as a way of assimilating into a white society. In the 1900s to get anywhere you had to be as white as yo black ass could be. Our hair was what made us stand out among other races making it one of our biggest struggles. This, of course, hit women the hardest. In the 1920s Afam women began to gel down and swoop all their hair onto their foreheads, sides, and necks to appear presentable. As black hairstyles evolved we began to gel down less and less of our hair to style with the updo’s of the time. With the evolution of hairstyles we always made sure to keep the edges of our hair did whether they were pushed or swooped to the backs and to the sides of our heads. During the ‘60s the Black Panther Party popularized Afros as a statement of Black Pride, resurgence of Afam culture, and resistance to assimilation. Afam women would then wear their Afros and other natural styles with styled baby hairs. As of now Baby hairs symbolize and reflect many things in Afam culture. It has became a signature of Black Feminine Pride, a reflection of Afam and Chicana sisterhood, and Afam cultural resurgence.

This month is Hoodoo Heritage Month and today is Nathaniel “Nat” Turner day. Born Oct. 2nd, Nat was an enslaved preacher who led a merciless, 4 day rebellion known as the bloodiest slave rebellion on American soil. He was captured on Oct. 30th. He was tarred, set on fire, and hung simultaneously. Once dead the white southerners then ate his meat, turned his skin into leather, and his bones into grease and oil. His rebellion led to the building of the Citadel in SC.

❤️🖤💚 ❤️🤍💙