15 Blackity-Black Things No One Else Would Understand

For the southern folk, we definitely got sat on a chair and handed a bowl of green beans to snap to help along the cooking process.

If you weren’t cooking the collards yourself, you can bet that whoever was would snatch you from what you were doing to cut these stems and wash these leaves.

You don’t know pain until you’ve grown stiff after sitting on the ground in between someone’s legs, getting your hair braided and having your head tossed from side to side for God knows how long. (Then they’d have the nerve to squeeze their thighs together to lock you in place so you wouldn’t move, or was that just my trauma?)

Some of our best memories with family is when we were just little toddlers splashing around in the bathtub. Why separate us from our cousins when our mothers and aunties could kill two birds with one stone?

A niche experience for Black women, whether natural hair or processed. There is nothing more humbling than waking up in the morning thinking your flexi rod set or braid out was going to be cute and being forced to choose between a puff or slick back bun as an alternative... and with only minutes to get ready.

Black people can’t just tell a story. They have to insert a sound bite to continue things on and keep you captivated. Whether it’s starting the tale off with, “Aight, so boom,” or interjecting “bah bah bah” for your typical “so on and so forth,” we have a unique way of keeping one engaged.

Unfortunately, part of the Black experience in America is being seen as suspicious or up to no good just based off our skin color. One experience many of us share is being followed around by a store employee who more than likely assumes we were trying to steal from their store.

Mannnn there’s nothing like those hot summer days when sitting out on the porch or on the grass to feel the breeze had to suffice when the AC wasn’t pushing anything. Porch conversations made for the best laughs and THEE best tea.

Black people know how to talk without having to say NOTHING. Whether it’s your friend trying to tell you somebody y’all talked about just walked in the room or your mother shooting you a threatening glance when you’re acting up, you know what the look is when you get the look.

If you want to look for clothing, makeup and hell, even cooking recipes, you will more than likely have to add the words “Black people” or “Black-something” to your search bar to get what you’re really looking for. Pinterest girlies, you know what I mean.

Black people in the evening sun is unmatched. If you thought you looked good when you got ready in the morning, just wait until that orange-toned sunset beam rests on your brown skin. That glow is different.

You ever walk into a place with tons of white folks and your eyes dart around to see if any Black folks are in there? Yea, yea me too. I don’t know if it’s for safety reasons or just to have a smidge more comfort but even when we we’re not looking for each other, subconsciously we wonder how many chocolate chips are in the spot.