Black was thrust upon me long before I knew what it meant. It birthed me into a sense of purpose. My complexion can give shape to my soul’s journey through this physical world.

I also recognize that racial terms like “black”and “white”, and the categories they evolved from, were designed by people who wanted to exert power over others. By problematizing these terms, I like to think that I chip away at the injustice that provides a foundation for that power.

I am a mixed race person who grew to start another mixed race family. Between my mom, my dad, myself, my child, my spouse, their mom, their dad - you could not find a racial category that captures more than one of us. I am perceived as and I identify as Black, but most aspects of my life challenge the term’s strictures.

Black brings tremendous insight to my spiritual life despite Black was first intended as a cage for bodies like mine. Its meaning flexed and expanded with the arts, sciences, and social movements that Black people generated to survive, escape, and flourish. And eventually, through invention, perseverance, and constructive resilience, Black has ameliorated some of America’s most extreme moral failings.

Black people overcame many forms of oppression and birthed justice into the world in a way that transcends identity and exposes race as a malevolent fiction. Even if my soul has no “race”, Black cannot be separated from my faith. Black withholds a priceless heritage of spiritual transformation and empowerment for the benefit of every soul on earth. In my writing I hope to detail this triumph, and to honor and understand its legacy.