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Writing for Weird Sister, Morgan Parker believes that the concept of Afro-futurism might help us heal from daily anti-black violence. “Not only do our lives matter, they will remain. Like it or not.” 

I’ve been thinking a lot about the future. What will I do, who will I be, how will I love, will everything be okay. I’ve been thinking about the planet and how it is not doing very well. I am thinking about marches and earthquakes and The Book of Revelation. I am thinking a lot about death. I am starting to understand I’m not welcome. In my ear I hear Sun Ra whisper “space is the place.” In my other ear I hear Kanye say “we wasn’t supposed to make it past twenty-five.” This is what Black American women are wondering:What’s up to us?

I can’t read another goddamn news article. I don’t want any new hashtags or reasons to protest, I just want all my friends on a beach, their brown skin smiling with relief. I want us to feel safe and light and regular and unchained. There is no indictment again. And maybe that is the point. Maybe Black Americans were never supposed to be welcome. Maybe we were never meant to unchain ourselves from our ugly beginning on this continent. I wear the past. I drink it, even, and sleep in it and kiss it.

Read more at Weird Sister

Photo: Still from Frances Bodomo’s “Afronauts”