“My life is my message” – Mahatma Gandhi
This is my first time seeing this quote. I love it because it fits-in perfectly with my beliefs. A lot of pressure is put on me, as a black male and young artist, to be SPECIFICALLY this and that for the sole purpose of influencing the communities (mainly male, black, Haitian, young adult, black artist) that I am a part of in a positive and progressive way.
The struggle that I face being in these categories (btw no one cares about my preferences—maybe I wanted to be a kangaroo, who knows?) is that I don’t want to play along with anyone’s idea of what I SHOULD be. Neither do I like that. I believe that by keeping myself alive and taking the best care of myself, I am being an exemplary member of the black community, for example (staying alive is key here, unfortunately). I believe that by chasing my freedom regardless of what others may think (regardless of even the opinions of those who fully support me), I am being an exemplary member of the male community—especially when considering the captivity of toxic masculinity. I believe that just by creating at my own pace (there is no pace, actually—it’s all crazy and shit gets created when it does 🤷🏾♂️), even though I always turn my back to go clock-in for my day job, I am being an exemplary artist. I don’t need to be producing content heavily—especially black-activism themed content. I don’t need to have a certain level of recognition to be an “artist” (even though recognition is a part of my big-bad plan). I believe that I don’t have to be monetarily, actively, educationally, spiritually, or culturally supporting Haiti in order to be an “acceptable” Haitian, a “real” Haitian, or just a Haitian. Being born in Haiti, and even me correcting people, “No. I am Haitian. I just happen to have an American citizenship” is enough. I don’t have to be racking up debt, bills, have a stable job, all the while building a family to be properly “adulting”. I’m legally an adult—alive and thriving. That suffices.
I also don’t have to start an organization, support a fund, or put my name behind a movement in order to be a promoter of these things. My life is my message. Me being alive while being my full self should send the message that I, too, am a part of the revolution. I don’t need to be fighting like everyone else is fighting or like everyone else is expecting their counterparts to fight. My Life is my Message.
Anyways, I surely hope that is what Gandhi meant with that quote lol!
Many thanks to the post on https://jezzieg.com that inspired this response. Check out their page, y’all!
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