In this spoken‑word piece, the poet declares that Black people should "stop being Black," arguing that race is a social construct rather than a biological reality. He opens by warning that his statement may anger listeners, then dismantles the binary notion of "Black" versus "White" by describing color as a spectrum of six skin‑tone degrees, from ivory to highly pigmented brown. He asserts that skin color tells nothing about a person's morality, values, or character, and that labeling oneself as Black functions only as a lifestyle, status symbol, or excuse. The poet traces the historical roots of the term "Black" to three centuries of American slavery, the trans‑Atlantic slave trade, Jim Crow laws, and the later adoption of "African American" as a label, suggesting that these constructs have been used to oppress and to create a marketable identity. He critiques the pervasive "Blackification" of culture—music, speech, fashion, colleges, businesses, and even social movements—arguing that these stereotypes perpetuate stagnation and division. Personal anecdotes illustrate how everyday interactions (e.g., cab drivers changing music, women clutching purses) reinforce the Black identity narrative. Ultimately, he calls for a post‑racial humanity where people are defined by beliefs and actions rather than skin color, urging Black individuals to abandon the label and embrace a universal human identity.
Chapters
If you identify as Black, what I'm going to say may make you mad. Even if you've ever referred to another person as Black, then you might feel some type of way, maybe even bad. But bottom line, Black people need to stop being Black. I said it and I own it. I won't take my words back. White, Black, what are we talking about here? It's shameful. It's the 21st century. What a The fact that we still don't get that black and white is not right. It has never been, certainly not now, and the future is a blur. Black and white are the presence of all colors and the absence of color. They are not races to start, but regardless of that, they certainly shouldn't determine how we relate, communicate with, or define one another. Skin color as a race does not exist. It's time to kick that out of the door. People are humans, a species of the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Nothing is ever black and white. This dichotomous association and debilitating obsession with melanin, or the lack thereof, is an archetypal example of how lacking our collective consciousness is above. In our minds, the delusional, dysfunctional, degenerative, disordered mentality of the times. Generational crap. Passed down, forced on us through time. But I refuse to make it mine. Race, the way people think of it, is not reality. It's not even in the dictionary. The race is a measure of the fastest pace to the finish line. Who makes haste the waste of a triumphant taste that's like a vapor, soon it's gone. Which is what this black and white interception of humanistic unity must be. That there is the overshadowed fact, which I repeat, is that black people need to stop being black. A person's skin complexion tells you nothing about a person except the person's complexion. Can you know a person by perceiving and assigning socio-political demographic. It is impossible in a genuine sense, but people have and continue to try, and it makes me sick. There are 6 degrees of separation. Degree 1: Ivory skin. Degree 2: Fair and pale skin. Degree 3: Beige skin with golden undertones. Degree 4: Olive skin. Degree 5: Brown skin. Degree 6: Highly pigmented, darker shades of brown skin. This is one of the most abominating sins. Seeing black and white cannot tell you about a person's morality, values, integrity, ethics. The pigmented hue of a person's epidermis cannot tell you the person's trustworthiness, loyalty, honor, valor, generosity, essence, and even emotional intelligence. I'll say it again, this time at a slower pace. Black does not exist. Not as skin color, not as a race, So that only leaves black as a lifestyle, as a status symbol, as an excuse, as a personality. Should I continue the list, or can you begin to see the fallacy? Black people need to stop being black. The social paradigms of being black, in my opinion, are whack. My genealogy doesn't define me either, but just because my skin's hue is what some describe as caramel, or in summer months, pecan, it doesn't mean that I'm black, especially if it means denying my Puerto Rican heritage and roots in Ireland. Tell me why cab drivers change the radio station from salsa to hip-hop music whenever I get in the car. If that's not taking this compartmentalized construct of Black too far, then consider all the women who have clutched their purses tightly against their side or bosom as I walk by in broad daylight and when the sky is lit only by stars. I may not be Black, but scenarios like these in a lifetime of several dozen more have all left self-identity scars. How did we get How did we get here to this black phenomenon? Etymology isn't so much the culprit, as is a long history of explication. This homogenized term stems from 3 centuries of American bondage and forever will be. After Africans sold fellow Africans to colonists as if a commodity, they were told they were niggers as the boats traveled across the sea. After being emancipated by the only brown beveled face on US, legal tender. They were then people of color still acting as reimagined slaves to capitalistic ideologies and earning taxable wages from their former masters. But now, instead of "Yes, master," they were obliged as merely "Yes, sir." That is, Jim Crow laws sweep down and cracked corn. Black still hadn't officially been universally accepted as the norm, even though Dr. King and Malcolm did see its peripheral preference as they appealed for inclusion and unity. It was being boxed in as colored that seemed to be key to unlocking the blackness for the alleged land of the free. Soon it became necessary, with a latent tendency to ostracize among the oppressed and oppressors, to propagate the term African American, and since it has remained black's formal dress. But as it stands, black has survived through time as the best. I hope this all has some sense of diplomacy and tact, but I still insist that black people need to stop being black. Far more than the fair majority of people who identify identify as Black are impairing themselves by perpetuating unprogressive, stagnated ideas, stereotypes, and stigma. How people can't see this malignant societal dilemma remains an unsettling enigma. Everything has to be Blackified and then dominated and patronized by Black people. There are Black music genres, Black singing styles, and Black ways of speaking. Black colleges, Black-owned businesses, Black people food, Black fashion. The porn industry heard opportunity knock. With the exploitation of gay, black. Let's not forget to mention how even black lives matter in some way different than other people, even if others pray to similar idols and gods in a building with a similar steeple. Is the mourning of a black mother who loses her child to some disease more significant than the pain of a white mother at her child's grave crying on her knees? Is a black man who just lost his job and home more destitute than any other man who becomes homeless and must live off unemployment pennies This divide creates a cultural danger zone. Ivory, alabaster, caramel, porcelain, tan, marshmallow, almond, or any other of the 33 flavors of skin color and undertones. There is no race. No black, no white. It is all a lie. Human beings all live, love, suffer, and die. There is no way around it, no exception, no hook. It doesn't matter how you look, it's about what you believe, who you are, how you act. So please hear me when I say it's time for Black people to stop being Black.
