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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at CAU chapter.

I am your influencer. I am the blueprint. I am innovative. I am your aesthetic. I am beautiful (inside and out). I am who I say I am. In the words of 21 Savage, I Am > I Was. I am blacker than the ace of spades, but more importantly, I am never going to change, who I am, for you. 

I AM > I WAS

Over the past month, I’ve either seen/heard something or been somewhere that has reminded me of how far black people have come. From riches to rags back to riches. My people have been drug through the mud (literally) and treated all kinds of inhumane. It saddens me when I actually sit and realize how barbarous we were treated. But, I don’t want to spend this article talking about those diabolical people. It’s Black History Month (honestly, it’s all year for me) and I’m focusing on our growth and prosperity this year, not how bad we were treated. I recently took a trip to the Hammonds House Museum (please go if you haven’t already) and there was a particular piece that made me fill with emotions. I’ve heard about there being two different water fountains for black and white people but, I never physically saw the two types of fountains. White people could drink from an actual water fountain, while we had to drink from a water faucet like we were animals. I had to step back because, sometimes we can often forget what we had to go through, as a whole. Frankly, we still experience those troubles but at this time in our lives we can’t go back. The number of entrepreneurs, students, educators, etc. that we are becoming has me so excited for our future. We are better than what they tried to make us. We are stronger. We are smarter. We are greater than what we were. 

 

I AM YOUR INFLUENCE 

Mirror, mirror on the wall… who’s the trendsetter of them all? Ask yourself, who wore those long nails first? We did. Who’s culture did they steal? Ours. It’s so many things that black people have done that have created their whole entire swag. All this black-fishing and cultural appropriation that they’re doing on social media is unacceptable, but it seems like they just can’t resist it. Our culture was ghetto, distasteful, and obscene a few years ago. But, it’s now considered the “Top Trends of the 2000s, 2010s and the 2020s.” It’s so crazy because they still can’t even do it right! We are your art. We are your leaders. We are your influence. 

Man Hugging Woman Photo
Idiosyncratic.I / Pexels

I AM FOREVER ME

As far as we’ve come. All of the struggles we’ve been through, others can not expect us to change for them. It won’t happen in this lifetime or the one where we’re thought to be inferior. I could never pretend to be someone else to fit in with them when they do everything in their power to be like me. I love music and I will play it as loud as I want. I grew my hair and I will wear it how I want to. I will wear the clothes that I feel comfortable in. I will talk how I want to. I will say what I want to. They’re nobody special. And trust me what I do isn’t to impress them. I am unapologetically black. I am solid. I am me and will always be the highest form of myself. 

Be mad. 

PLAYLIST: 

https://open.spotify.com/user/ayolondraa/playlist/10T7V9RiWWIqwk9i8JRadK?si=EON7ycxgTR2q9a_QJQBRZw

 

I am Jalondra Jackson, a multiform arts and culture writer, curator and enthusiast. Currently, I am a Junior studying Journalism and Business Administration at Clark Atlanta University. My portfolio is influenced by the ever-shifting industry of art and the underrepresented areas in the arts. I began this journey by serving as a content writer for Her Campus CAU and my university’s newspaper, The CAU Panther.
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