Black Lives Matter is not just another social media hashtag. Black Lives Matter is not just another protest. Nomvelo Chalumbira is tired.
Black Lives Matter is not just another dead discarded black body.
Black Lives Matter is not just another clickbait marketing campaign.
Black Lives Matter is not just another social media hashtag.
Black Lives Matter is not just another protest.
Black Lives Matter is not just another ** police brutality revolution.
Black Lives Matter is not just another appeal for justice.
Black Life is the silent bewildered stares you feel on your back when you walk into Salsify restaurant in Camps Bay, Cape Town.
Black Life is the flippant "Blacks must get over apartheid already, it’s been 25 years" remark at a braai among "diverse liberal friends".
Black Life is that 4-year-old girl who gets a black doll for her birthday instead of perfect Ms Barbie and cries because she is repulsed at the plastic reflection.
Black Life is the micro-aggressive jabs of "why are the black girls always sitting alone together?"
Black Life is the blatant disregard to spell my name properly even when it's in my e-mail signature.
Racism comes from unexpected places. Racism is constantly having to justify your existence to others.
Yhu, a girl is tired.
TIRED.
Why is it my responsibility to teach the very people who are responsible for this mess?
The black experience is nuanced, rich, complicated, confusing, celebratory, an adventure, spiritual and many more things I could spend the whole day describing.
Like many black children, I have a story.
Despite slight class privilege, I have not gone unscathed.
This is not a pity party, its reality. No matter my economic status, education, religion, I still live in a society where I am reminded ukuthi abangifuni lana (I am not wanted here).
Trying to find my place in a society where I am reminded, I am BLACK can feel like walking on hot coals with no end.
All of a sudden there is a need to understand why what you said is racist, no need to know how one feels and have things explained?
But you know what, kusasa ngisazovuk' ngibangene (tomorrow I will show up as my best self).
When a friend of mine and I started our Melenial, I didn't know what it meant and what it would do but all I knew was, my ancestors built Great Zimbabwe and I was not about to disappear without a trace like how they have tried to erase everything Black people have done.
So yes, the recent spate of Black Lives Matter protests, riots, outrage, etc. may seem repetitive, petty, and overdone. But isn't that just the problem?
What white people don't know about black people shouldn't be up to black people to tell them.
Imagine the exhaustion of being subjected to so-called philosophical questioning by a white person over seemingly insignificant issues that are actually quite triggering.
You're going to have to be more than just curious to find out more.
Some black creatives I believe embody Ma Maya Angelou's quote, "My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humour, and some style"- Zandile Muholi, Milisuthando Bongela, Bee Diamondhead, Binwe Adebayo, Thuli Manyathi, Simbongile Ndlangisa, Athi Pathigra, Mercia Tucker, Malibongwe Tyilo, Pap Culture, Kayleen Morgan, Panashe Chigumadzi, Desire Marea, Darkie Fiction, The Ubunifu Space, Lebo Mashile, Lady Skollie.
Black Lives Matter. ALWAYS.
- Nomvelo Chalumbira is a multimedia journalist in Johannesburg.