A friend and I recently mused over love in its broadest sense. Naturally, the conversation navigated towards unpacking the psyche that informs romantic #BlackLove. I might be too simplistic in describing the kind of love we spoke of as 'romantic' love. We then explored the different lenses in which we as a society and individuals view this romantic #BlackLove and how we can further imagine it. Background lenses. Societal lenses. Personal Experience lenses. It seems that there exists a particular construction about what #BlackLove represents. This may be the reason why so many people approach relationships with fear. We cannot be in denial about what colonialism and apartheid did to the Black family structure, making family relations extremely complex; which we see the debris flowing right into current day.
It's important that we understand why we see the things the way we do. What type of stories were we told regarding two bodies in a romantic relationship? What kind of norms were formed in how we behave towards each other in relating in accordance to love? How did these norms construct how we live out our romantic relationships on a daily basis. I want to think about what we can do to begin to deconstruct a toxic narrative about what romantic #BlackLove represents.
We have to take deliberate actions in unlearning these ills that exist between two bodies. The ills that were constructed by an oppressive system. The ills that keep two bodies imprisoned and choked. Simply because they can't breathe.
Please listen to the conversation between Aphelele Somi and I, on her #PowerFM987 #PowerLunch show, as we unpacked this topic.
Please have a listen here:
Let us use Love as a tool to deconstruct the system that was used against us.
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