Puerto Rico, her ancestry consists of a beautiful colonial mix of African slavery, Taino genocide, and European imperialism. Puerto Rico's black ancestry has been null and void, erased. The internalization of blackness is non existent. "I'm proud to be black," is a phrase that roams aimlessly among our palm trees and scent of coffee. It drops on flamboyant trees like snow on a hot winter day. Our modern era of U.S. control has supported this attitude. The abstract bubble of U.S. citizenship, the drive for equality, and the modern objectification of blackness creates a tension. If one cannot be black and welcomed, then how can one be black, Puerto Rican, and embraced? The island and its people are in crisis, it is time to acknowledge that our black heritage has done more for us than our colonizers ever will.Puerto Rico, her ancestry consists of a beautiful colonial mix of African slavery, Taino genocide, and European imperialism. Puerto Rico's black ancestry has been null and void, erased. The internalization of blackness is non existent. "I'm proud to be black," is a phrase that roams aimlessly among our palm trees and scent of coffee. It drops on flamboyant trees like snow on a hot winter day. Our modern era of U.S. control has supported this attitude. The abstract bubble of U.S. citizenship, the drive for equality, and the modern objectification of blackness creates a tension. If one cannot be black and welcomed, then how can one be black, Puerto Rican, and embraced? The island and its people are in crisis, it is time to acknowledge that our black heritage has done more for us than our colonizers ever will.
