Black | SAULT

I remember the first time I had to tell someone “I’m Black”.

It was my first day of first grade. A girl walked up to me and asked what I was.

I said “I’m Black” with a smile.

“Black and what?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well you can’t be all Black.”

I was so confused.

No one ever questioned my Blackness before. But then again, no one ever asked me what I was before either.

To me Black didn’t look one way. Black looked like everything around me. And fit perfectly in there. I was perfectly between my mom and my dad. I was perfectly between my two grandmothers. I was perfectly between my two grandfathers. And I was perfectly between the my great-grandmother and pictures I saw of my great-grandfather.

I was confused because one ever questioned my Blackness before. Because it was never a question.

I went home and double-checked with my mom. (Yep. I was Black.)

After that, whenever someone asked me what I was (which was a lot growing up), I just repeated “I’m Black” until they were done with their follow up questions.

As I got older and learned more about, and shared, my ancestry, people would say “Oh. So you’re like Black and-”

“I’m Black”

When someone asked if I was mixed, and I was feeling sassy, I’d say “I’m as mixed as every other Black person in America.”

But it was tiring after a while. Meeting new people, getting acquainted, and feeling them get comfortable enough to start asking “so…”

It was tiring to constantly have conversations about race, history, and genetics with people when I just wanted to watch music videos and eat french fries.

It was tiring to repeat “I’m Black” over and over again.

But now after listen to this song. Maybe it wasn’t tiring after all.

Maybe it was just the opposite.