Nina Simone once said, "The people that built their heaven on your land are telling you yours is in the sky." Let that sink in. Here's what she really meant.
The settler colonial empire used Black suffering to build the world we live in. Slavery literally created and sustained the U.S. economy. And religion? They strategically weaponized it against us, using things like their slave Bible to convince us that THIS was it. But that's never been true. We've known worlds other than this one.
When we look to our ancestral past, we see ourselves as stewards of lands, herbalists, scientists, griots, and much more. After 1865, diasporic Black communities across the Americas, from the U.S. to Brazil, have held onto time-honored rituals while cultivating new customs in lands we were forced to make our homes.
Our history itself is proof that the anti-Black oppressive forces working against us weren't our past, and won't be our future. Simone's words are a reminder that we're not just up against “racism,” and why we must be committed to unlearning ALL that coloniality taught us.
We have the tools, skills, and genius to create and build a heaven-on-earth existence for ourselves. Say it with me: Black liberation is possible. A liberated future is ours. We determine our destinies. We can create our paradise right now.