Propaganda is defined as information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view. Black-aganda is defined as positive images and narratives used to promote awareness of black excellence.

There are so many negative and misleading images of us. So many that it makes us question ourselves at time. Everything that we love and glorify about ourselves, is somehow turned into negatives by those lacking melanin. But then, those same things (i.e. features and personality traits) are stolen. What is important to remember is that the ones that steal cannot make a move without us. They wait on our next move so they can join the wave and claim it as their own. In the words of Paul Mooney, “Everybody wanna be a n*gga, but don’t nobody wanna be a n*gga.” News Flash to the world, specifically the United States: We are DOPE! But with that dopeness people will continue to attempt to capitalize off of us, and then paint us as the bad guy when we speak up.

I’m sure you have noticed that when one of us are killed, they will pull up every negative thing they possibly can. But when they shoot up a school, they are mentally ill and given the royal treatment, without a hair being touched on their head. Did you also notice how no one mentions the possible PTSD that we suffer from watching us being killed in cold blood without any justice? Our mental health is discredited and overlooked. That’s why Black-aganda is so important. It literally has to be a grassroots effort.

The attack starts with our babies, and self-hate is taught at a very young age. The vast majority of superheroes and Disney princesses are white, the picture they try to mass produce of Jesus is white, the recent BS on the news painted Nefertiti as white, and most commercials have white actors. Additionally, we have the school systems teaching history of people who do not look like us and they try to down play their roles in murder, rape and theft, or they don’t mention it at all. This is all the while not even mentioning our greatness and contributions to this country or world. Our legacy did not start with slavery, and will not end there.

I’m also sure you saw the study where the black and brown children preferred a white doll over a brown doll because they thought that one was prettier. This is why we have to manage what our kids read, see and hear. Marley Dias even said she was tired of books about white boys and animals, which is why she created 1000 Black Girl Books. This is also the very reason why I wrote and illustrated Perfectly Brown and Just Justice, to provide positive images of the black family and community as a whole. There were absolutely no melanin characters in my hometown library. My Goddaughter wasn’t reading about herself and I had to change that. These two books not only have a positive story line between the parents and children, but the positivity between the whole community. This is what propaganda neglects to show and doesn’t want the world to know about.

We must show our magical, melanin, beautiful and intelligent children who they are and what they come from so they will understand everything they can become. They are unlimited in their abilities and they need to hear it from us so society and propaganda isn’t telling them who they are. Through Black-aganda we get to control the narrative.

To learn more about J Terry, visit perfectlybrown.com.

Jay Terry

Writing since April 2018 · 1 story contributed