My Ancestors Wanted This for Me!

Let me start off by saying this is going to sound racial and maybe even anti-white. Honestly, it is none of that. But it is real black liberation, it is very pro-Black, it is very much my ancestors bleed, cried, sweat, labored, survived, prayed, dreamt, lived, birthed, and died for me to be here. So, it is with a great source of pride that I exclaim the later accomplishments and lay out these facts.

Setting the scene, it is 8pm on a 72 degrees spring night in an Atlanta Metro suburb. And I am opening one of the doors on my 3 car garage. It’s the night before trash pickup and I need to put the last bit of rubbish in the container before sunrise. As I am collecting the trash at the door, I hear one of my neighbors say, “Hey there!” I look up and its him on his bicycle with a reflective vest waving and about 20 feet behind coming out of the cul-de-sac is his wife with her reflective vest on as well waving and saying, “How are you doing?” I wave back at them and speak and give a big smile showing all of my pearly-whiteish teeth. Coming down the sidewalk with their massive dog on a leash is another one of my neighbors. This time it is a woman on the phone and seems like she is talking to her sister or best friend. The conversation is very happy, familiar, warm, and yet coded in the Black girl language that makes you know that they are talking about some really juicy stuff. She waves and I wave back as I dump the bags in the trashcan. Turning around to walk back to my garage to get in my car I look over to the right of me to see my neighbor backing his brand-new 2025 corvette into his garage and I can’t help but smile. I get into my car, back out of my driveway and set off for the gas station that is about 2 miles up the road from my house. In doing so I roll my windows down, cut my music up, and slowly cruise through my neighborhood admiring all of the well-manicured lawns, the well decorated front porches, and the light phenomenon that has taken over my subdivision. I love doing this. I love driving past my neighbors and their homes and our what seems to be 70 or less home community. I love taking late evening and even nighttime strolls through my neighborhood. I love waving and exchanging pleasantries with my communal partners. If you haven’t gathered by now, I live in an all-Black community. Yep, that’s right everyone that lives next to me looks just like me.  I mean we are all different colors LOL but technically we all look and check the box of ethnically Black/African American.

While some folks may have an issue with my happiness of what I just said I don’t think they truly understand why this brings so much joy to my soul. In 2017 there was a report published by the Prosperity Now and Institute for Policy Studies, called the “The Road to Zero Wealth.” That basically stated that if current trends persist the median wealth of the Black American household will decline to zero by the year 2053. Well, first my neighborhood is in direct contradiction to this report (not saying that there isn’t truth to it) because the homes start at $600K and interest rates last year when the last of my neighbors were locking in their deals were in the mid 7% range. Which means that on the low end of the spectrum you needed to make $108,000 annually with no significant debts. This fact alone is a source of pride for me because the ways in which we Black Folk have been kept out of the home ownership process for so long with every systemic evil tactic known under the sun and these here Descendants of Liberated People have the audacity to make the kind of money, keep their debts down, and save up the funds for the down payment…. Oooo Jesus I will kiss you in the mouth!

I hear your eyes rolling over there like, “OK, Drek! Mr. R.K. Swan, that’s cool but it’s still not that serious.” I beg to differ, and I will show you yet another fact. I used to live in Montgomery, AL. Which is a predominately black city, however there are parts that are majority white. I had an apartment that was right next to a park in the middle of beautiful houses smack dead on the Eastside of town. I used to go for walks in the park on my lunch break during the day. And I would be miserable because it was extremely hot mid-day. The only thing I could think about is “I wish I could walk out here when the sun went down.” I hear your thoughts from here. First let me say in Montgomery it is illegal to be in any Montgomery Park after the sun goes down. So, there’s that. And then there is the question of the neighborhood, and why didn’t I just walk out there…. “Was the crime that bad? You know Black on Black crime is a real thing.” WRONG! That wasn’t what stopped me from walking in my Eastside neighborhood at night. Criminal on criminal crime will never put fear in my heart. And I can protect myself from being a victim. It was the fear that my neighbors, my non-Black neighbors would call the police on me, and I would be expired for exercising while black in my very own community. So, when my beautiful spouse and I are taking late night strolls around our little subdivision and I see the other BLACK couples doing the same, I give them the biggest smile and “How are you doing”. Because of the fight in my very own spirit, it took to achieve this level of feeling of safety and belonging. I actually belong to this community. They actually care for my family’s well-being and want us here.

Just 2 short weeks ago my bonus daughter (I’m only going to use that phrase this one time for a point of refence. So, from this point forward, she is just my daughter and will maybe referred to as the baby of the bunch, I’m still in debate.) and I were outside polishing her driving skills as she had her driver’s license exam the next day. She was worried about her parallel parking, and we were just refining what she had otherwise become an expert at. Anyway, the community was in full support. The elder women were outside walking and conversing and with great pride they took a break from their gabbing to exclaim to my little cub, “You got this baby!” and “Get those license girl!” I felt such immense pride that Jasmine and I had chosen the perfect metro, down to the perfect city, and even further down to the perfect house in just the right neighborhood.

When I was initially mapping out this blog post in my head, I was going to state all of the facts of history that would give me and someone like me the reason to feel how I do. And I was even going to try and cure racism (LOL). I was going to tug on the intellectual and emotional heart strings of the reader and then The Spirit moved my thoughts and typing to a story and cheer and now here we are. A PROUD young BLACK man married to a BLACK woman building our BLACK family in our BLACK community in our BLACK city in one of the BLACKEST metros in the BLACKEST part of the United States of America. I believe that my ancestors are so proud and overcome with joy that they are in Heaven cheering us on with every step we take. I wish this for every little BLACK boy and girl!