Melanin is Beautiful

gotta be the equivalent to this

Me:

July 2015, I had no idea this is the kind of journey the Universe would sail my way (mind you, we spoke a couple times in 2014 through tumblr lol cause ya know, you slid in them DM’s). But in July ,you added me to snapchat, found out I lived a million miles a way (Me -Jamaica, Her - New Jersey) and somehow we decided to Skype. Cause why not right?

So we had our first Skype call, and I was nervous as hell… cause that’s not something I do everyday, Skype really isn’t wasn’t my thing. Got on, you smiled ONCE and I knew you’d snatch my lil old soul. So we did it again, and again for what felt like an eternity (up to like 12 hours at a time occasionally, we’re crazy). We started growing uneasy because of the distance. It sucked from the get go… but I liked how much there was no… rush, to do anything. Getting to know you then, is still as thrilling as it is to this day. AND FUHHKK it’s been hard at times for sure but i’ll always believe there’s a way.

So …On the 12th of December, 2015 I bought a ticket to New York to stay with my sister for a couple months (low key a trip to see you). I’d be there in …. February, 2016. By January, we had started making plans to meet up, and you surprised me with a train ticket to see you on your spring break in March, for a week.

Her:

March 5th. One of the most stressful yet exciting days of my life. We finally meet. You’re even more beautiful in person. I can’t believe this is actually happening. You really traveled all this way to see me. This is real.

And so it begins. Our first week together. We get all the basics out of the way: first date, first kiss, first…yeah. Not everything is perfect, but all is amazing. It takes a moment to realize you’re actually here. I can touch you…we can hug all the time! So many cuddles and kisses and “I love you’s”. It all seems surreal. We share so many laughs. I finally get to be with my best friend…Suddenly, we can see the end near. The days are flying. I struggle to stop worrying about when i’ll see you again…it’s all that’s on my mind. This wasn’t enough. I want it forever. I want you forever.

Reluctantly, we part. Back to the online conversations we know so well. Sad and bitter is all I can manage for a while, but I keep it together because of you. You assure me that there will always be another trip. I will see you again. And my heart believes you.

frank ocean icons

Found from various places online:

The Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire

Angela Y. Davis - Are Prisons Obsolete?

Angela Y. Davis - Race, Women, and Class

The Communist Manifesto - Marx and Engels

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde

Three Guineas by Virginia Woolf

Critical Race Theory: An Introduction by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic

The Black Image in the White Mind: Media and Race in America- Robert M. Entman and Andrew Rojecki

Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism - bell hooks

Feminism is for Everybody - bell hooks

outlaw culture - bell hooks

Faces at the Bottom of the Well - Derrick Bell

Sex, Power, and Consent - Anastasia Powell

I am Your Sister - Audre Lorde

Patricia Hill Collins - Black Feminist Thought

Gender Trouble - Judith Butler

Four books by Frantz Fanon

Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston

Medical Apartheid - Harriet Washington

Fear of a Queer Planet: Queer Politics and Social Theory  - edited by Michael Warner

Colonialism/Postcolonialism - Ania Loomba

Discipline and Punish - Michel Foucault

The Gloria Anzaldua Reader

Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? by Mark Fisher

This Bridge Called by Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color by Cherríe Moraga & Gloria Anzaldúa

What is Cultural Studies? - John Storey 

Cultural Theory and Popular Culture - John Storey 

The Disability Studies Reader 

Michel Foucault - Interviews and Other Writings 

Michel Foucault - The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3 

Michel Foucault - The Archeology of Knowledge 

This blog also has a lot more.