Why Black as Coal? Why Not?

​I asked the above question on Facebook and received an overwhelming response from my friends and family.

Thus, Black as Coal was born.  One of my soul sister's suggested I use what is meant to be derogatory and dehumanizing, Black as Coal, a slur used toward black people with a darker hue, and embrace it, take away its power to destroy, and use it to build.
Because I am blackety, black, black, mind, body, and soul this is right up my alley. 

I know you may ask, "what in the same hale does this have to do with Sustainability?"

Well, a lot.  It is difficult navigating through this world that thrives on a white supremacist ideology.
If you are black and reading this, I do NOT have to regale all of the aggressions we have to endure just trying to live. 

So imagine me, navigating all my super blackness in a field, a mission, a calling that has been so incredibly white washed it is not even funny.  No really, it's not funny. 

​So here I am, Black as Coal, gleefully  so, using a  moniker that was meant to destroy to build a community. 

Isn't that what we have always had to do as black people?

Take every bit of manure life throws at us and make something beautiful grow from it? 

That's what my grandmother has done, my grandfather, my mother, my father, my ancestors, and their ancestors.

The strange fruit, still here, taking isht, yet, still building.

And it's certainly not lost on me that I am choosing this title in the sustainability space where coal should be frowned upon.

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