deep river cross over

Darkness is depth. Depth is truth. Truth is reality.

CW: global anti-Blackness, europeans & their evils.

Disclaimer: I make a bit of a play on “love and light” spirituality in this post, but it's not necessarily directed at people who identify that way, although I do also critique those people as well. Really this is just a warning/rallying cry for everyone. I’m working off of the phrase "love and light" because we live in a society that prioritizes "lightness" over darkness, because our oppressors/governments benefit from us spiritually bypassing our justice, and because even people who don't say "love and light" or identify with that spiritual vibe can still be deradicalized by it. The post is directed at everyone, including myself and at the culture/collective consciousness. See the bottom of this page if you need or want more explanation of what I mean when I say "love and light".

Short no-nuance summary:

There’s not enough time for “love and light“ at this stage in the colonial plan. “Love and light” is what got us here & keeps us here. Instead of love and light, I wish us all deep darkness, curiosity, reality, problem-solving, transformative grief (over the loss of ignorance), comfort in the unknown, & truth.

Keep reading for the nuance & word tricks.

For me, broadly, radicality is embracing darkness where most others put “light” on a pedestal. Literally, as radicals, agitators, anarchists, and so on, we are often doing the opposite of what most others are doing, in order to fundamentally change something. Embracing darkness is "radical" at this time in human history because it challenges the imbalance that's happening right now, where "light" and the pursuit of "lightness" is prioritized more than anything.

Being Black and alive already goes directly against the mainstream western culture that wants us dead or enslaved. But unfortunately, a negro can uphold anti-Blackness and white supremacy just as well as anyone else. It's not enough to plateau in our resistance or meet the enemy right at their level. There's an unnatural imbalance happening on Earth right now, and we gotta be something very fierce to restore that balance.

Among Black people, there's definitely been a lot of collective movement toward re-balancing the mess white-supremacists have made. Many of us recognize how blatantly (and secretly) they send anti-Black messages in media, “policies”, & general attitude. They’ve never backed down from their love of whiteness and lightness or their hatred of blackness and darkness.

So there’s not enough time for “love and light” anymore, at least not collectively. If you're someone whose life has already been full of grief & transformation, harsh realities, problem-solving, and you already know what it means to fight, then yes-please enjoy all the “love and light” u can get your hands on, and let it balance u. u are entitled to that balance. Still always remember ur darkness and never swing so far that u start "forgive and forget"ing everything.

…but on a large-scale, we’ve had plenty “light”. I think it’s time for more darkness. More curiosity, more reality, more problem-solving. More walking into the forest, afraid-then finding out there’s actually answers in there. Answers on how to meet ourselves. how to use magic. how to escape & k1ll our captors with righteous clarity. our radicality lives in the unknown. we live in there. reality is in darkness. and darkness is a beautiful truth of life.

the colonizers {capitalists, imperialists, and so on) did something violently unnatural when they made dark = evil & light = good. they've done it for hundreds of years, and continue to do it w their media, their religions, and even their languages. plenty of us feel the effects of this imbalance.

i don’t believe dark and light are supposed to have the emotionally charged meanings that they now do. cosmically, they are just facts. the universe is full of darkness, and started as darkness. stars produce light, and that light creates the conditions for energy-bearing life. so yes, light is needed for life, but so is darkness. everything comes from the darkness. you can’t have one without the other, yet today, “lightness” is chased and desired above all else. darkness is feared and run from.

The european period of “enlightenment” (1700s-1800s, see bottom for more info on that mess) is recognized as a period of artistic, philosophical and human rights advancement. And yet, europeans were simultaneously doing the most unforgivable shit this Earth has ever seen via chattel slavery & prepping to poison the Earth & its inhabitants in a million other ways. They were still collectively justifying their evil, even most of the ones who thought they were really doing something revolutionary. They had all that extra time for philosophy and writing and art because enslaved Africans were feeding and clothing them; caring for their children. Yeah, I bet life did feel light! All that weight off of their shoulders. All that time to sit under a tree and “think”.

That's what they thought "light" was. That's what they still think "light" is. That's the kind of "light" they've infused into western society over hundreds of years. “Light”, meaning “comfort”. "Light" = Carrying on as normal, while avoiding and ignoring a horrible truth. "Light", meaning so bright that you can't “see” anymore. They were(are) so bright that sometimes...people's eyes instinctually closed from the shine. So bright that eyes get(got) too squinty, watery, and strained to see the evil clearly. They see(saw) their "advancements" as "light", not caring or realizing that they are inherently evil if they continue on as usual while creating and participating in horror.

To acknowledge the grief, suffering, breaking, bleeding, crying, humanity of the people they oppressed would mean accepting what they would call the "darkness" inside of them. But they’d also created all kinds of light, bright religions and institutions to protect themselves from ever having to see themselves for what they are. All is forgiven, all sins washed away in the LIGHT of day, right?

This anti-darkness, inability to introspect/tolerate the “dark” of themselves and others obviously translated into their deep anti-Blackness, which now lives all throughout the world. While we distance ourselves from them & their anti-darkness(Blackness), let us also k1ll the anti-Blackness(darkness) within ourselves.

& English is just a language, of course. Language is just a tool humans created. "Dark" and "light" are just words we give meaning. So let us re-define darkness. Never let "dark" automatically = evil. Darkness is simply:
-shadow
-the other side
-inside
-introspecting
-depth; feeling deeply
-truth; what is hidden
-transformation
-reality
darkness is night, where spirits come to us in dreams to tell us what we really need to know; what it's too “bright” to see when we’re awake. yes, darkness is simply night, where we might feel fear, but we also practice courage, and experience a type of power we are consistently, intentionally cut off from.

This western society also has us labelling certain feelings as "dark", which could be neutral and fine if “dark” wasn’t also labelled as “evil”. Colonizers made certain emotions "dark" so that we wouldn't use that energy toward them, since they know they deserve it. They want us to forget about our capacity for anger (violent justice), grief (transformation of self), criticality (seeing through their lies), power (realizing what we can do), and so on. They lump those feelings in with “darkness” to get us to avoid them by consuming, working, or spiritually bypassing. Whole time, our power to fight lies in those feelings.

Also, lumping light & love together could make us collectively think darkness & love don’t belong together, which is also a lie. Deep deep deep love occurs in the dark. deep love is born out of darkness. our resistance is born out of CARE for ourselves and our communities. & That resistance comes from the “darkness” of anger & grief.

So no more fearing "darkness", no more calling our feelings "dark" when we mean "undesirable". Instead, let's find out why we don't desire those feelings, and learn to love them. Let us use those feelings as the productive, creative pieces of information that they are. Colonizers been calling our desire for justice "evil", "cruel", "unjust", and "unnatural" for centuries, when really it was always truth, righteousness, and nature to fight for our freedom. Let the colonizers and their institutions label our justice-seeking however they like. Let the darkness be so lovely and loud that you can no longer hear them. Let the dark have you.

Let us walk into the darkness together, see what we find there, let it change us, and use it to erupt.

Thanks for reading.

🖤Wishing u darkness & depth.

IMPORTANT NOTE: After writing, a very trustworthy community member let me know that my writing in this post was missing the discussion of how dark-skinned Black people are the absolute most affected by “anti-darkness”. Dark-skinned people face danger inside AND outside of Black communities & are often the VERY last people considered or afforded any humanity in both scenarios. When thinking solely in Black terms, let us always remember to protect those who are truly the most vulnerable and in need of protecting. Let us be vigilant for colorism in ourselves and others, and let us turn TOWARD the pain that dark-skinned people face by listening to them & joining them in their grief via solidarity/advocacy. Some examples:

Notes:

What is "love and light"? L & L spiritual culture often encourages things like forgiveness/compassion, letting things go, going with the flow, calling some emotions/energies "negative", and prioritizing the pursuit of light/love. Note that light and love can have any number of meanings to all kinds of people. So there are many kinds of people who use this term to self-describe, including those who do understand balance. L & L spirituality is also criticized plenty in modern culture due to the possibility of it causing avoidance of difficult topics, spiritual bypassing of important feelings, and ignoring justice. I am one of these critics. It's a generally known issue and a bit of joke or meme sometimes too.

-The period of Enlightenment (1700s-1800s) is described as a period of "...significant intellectual and cultural change in Europe...characterized by a focus on reason, individualism, and skepticism, challenging traditional authority and promoting new ways of thinking about society, politics, and religion." In my opinion, this period can be described as a period of europeans becoming more ignorant and relishing in their continued ignorance. This is when liberalism started to really take shape, as they refused to see themselves as connected to or implicated in the destruction of African people, or any indigenous group they were pillaging at the time.

The brand of liberalism that came out of this period was the one where "liberals" wanted to find comfort WITHIN the state. Stressing the “rights of the governed”. Meanwhile there were millions of people who had no interest in being governed, suffering. And so, this era was the start of “liberalism”, where privileged people think they’re resisting something, but they are actually just upholding, justifying, and trying to fix inherently evil institutions.

Key Aspects of the Enlightenment: -Liberalism -Individualism -"Intellectualism"

deep river cross over|2025