It’s a Love Thang: Lovin’ The Black Experience
“The Power of Black Self–Love” class taught by Dr. Stewart and Dr. Troka has caused me to redefine love as a young black woman and make positive changes to my love ethic. In my self-love journey, I have found that currently, my greatest obstacle to self-love is the policing of blackness and the black experience. When I say, “policing” I mean the imposition of expectations or qualifiers for what the black experience should resemble. Because the policing of blackness has been so prevalent in my life, I wanted to address all aspects of policing in my end-of-term project: from the implicit biases that drive policing, to the effects that policing has on young black people and finally the resistance of policing via self-acceptance. “It’s a Love Thang: Lovin’ The Black Experience” is a glimpse into my understanding of the policing of blackness. It consists of loose transcripts of various conversations and interviews I’ve had with Emory students about the policing of blackness.
“I’ve been told countless times that I’m not black enough” –Darius Stewart ’20
“Now I’ve accepted it and I’m not going to change, I like to read and learn new words… I’m not going to change that for someone else.” –Nia Kalifa ‘20
I asked the greater community of black Emory students what they loved about themselves via survey, then compiled their responses into the word cloud pictured above. I picked the shape of a fist because I believe there is power in loving yourself and resisting the policing of blackness. (Full Word Cloud Responses)
McKayla Williams is a first year student at Emory University majoring in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology.