Black Brilliance - By Ryan Best

Before middle school, my mother gave me “the talk”. No, not that one. “You will need to work twice as hard to be half as noticed,” she said. Every minority child receives “the talk” at some point and in some form or fashion. I resented it. I thought to myself, I should be free to pursue mediocrity just like everybody else. My siblings and I grew up in Redlands, CA. Why? It had a good school district. And doing well in school is code for poverty aversion in many black families. I did pretty well. Honor courses, AP classes, extracurricular activities, you name it - I had it. I noticed something peculiar though. Typically I was one of the only black students in the class. Kids are mean. I can’t tell you how many times I would hear, “where did Ryan go?” when the lights would turn off. Or if something would go missing I would get nudged and asked if I had stolen it. Ya know, because theft is in my blood. Church was marginally better, my friends found Simeon (phonetically sounds like simian, as in monkey), son of Jacob in the Bible and that became my name for a while. That was fun. Truthfully, I didn’t like being black all that much. Seemed more of a hassle than it was worth. Then it got better. I got baptized as a teen and started a very long journey to reconcile the fact that I held a lot of self-hatred due to my skin color. God makes no mistakes. After high school, I came to the Westside for college, graduated, and then stayed as my father encouraged me to “figure it out, bruh” as I contemplated moving back home. I’ve been here for over 10 years, and in that time, I’ve met and befriended people who look like me, which was a big deal because, for the longest time, I hated looking in the mirror. God said, “boy, watch this”. Tiffany Young, Handly Eugene, Mofe Alege, Kene and Chidera Izuchukwu, Taylor Causey, Matt White, Chuka Ikokwu, Zaheed Alejo, Miesha Bailey, Lanie Goueth, Dorretha Bennem, Patricia Butts. Excellence. Every man and woman, named and unnamed. Being black is fun, it’s a non-stop party. Wish I recognized that sooner. Bruh, Happy Black History Month.

But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. - Joshua 24:15