Black Lives Matter

My culture is sisterhood 
My culture is shared experiences
My culture is nodding at a random black person in a Starbucks because we both get it
My culture is accepting
My culture makes “something outta nothing” as my grandma says
My culture is the potent smell of hair products overtaking your senses as you’re
preparing for 1st days.
It’s the warm hugs my great grandmother granted me when I came to her after school
It is the collard greens she handpicked and cleaned to feed our family at her table
It’s the work it took to get that table
My culture is in the tears we shed while watching the news

My culture is countless black bodies on concrete, blood cascading from the holes in
their shirt
It’s the expressionless face you make as you hit the ground with that searing pain in
your chest being your only thought
My culture is your life, flashing by and realizing you never got to say goodnight
It’s the anger flowing through our community when they’re told it was over a stop
sign
My culture questions our worth,
“Does this ticket mean more than my life?”
It’s unhealed trauma seeping through our interior causing that generational hurt
It’s my mom, her mom, and her mom fighting the same fight

My culture deserves to be appreciated and not appropriated
My culture heals itself
My culture advocates for the ones we’ve lost
It challenges society and reminds you that it’s not set in stone
My culture started a revolution that traveled across the world
My culture brought the world together

Jordan Brown is an emerging author who adores writing about the human condition and using her voice to break the stigma around certain social issues, such as the relationships black women have with their mental health.