I remember the way Trayvon Martin was crucified by the media after his murder. I remember the way white people frantically searched his social media for photos that would make him appear to be more threatening than he was, photos that would make it appear that he deserved to be shot. I remember the photo that folks used to demonize him, the photo of him with his gold fronts on, with his middle fingers up, I remember how this photo shook White America to its core. Shook them to the point where they KNEW, above all else, that this young Black boy had deserved to be murdered. Not because of any action, but because of the way he looked. As if he would still be alive today, had he never posted a photo of himself smoking a blunt, or flippin the bird on social media (although, we know that is not the case).

That photo, that reaction is why I’ll never "clean up" the way I look, or the way I express myself, to be more digestible for White consumption. I feel it is my responsibility, to be unapologetically Black, by whatever standards I see fit. Because at the end of the day, in the eyes of White Supremacy, I am still a "nigger" no matter how "proper" I talk, how short my hair is, or how many suits I own. I can be an activist, a Communist, an organizer, an advocate for Black liberation, without having to adhere to eurocentric respectability politics. There is no contradiction here. I am not ashamed of gold teeth or graffiti. I am not ashamed of what my people have developed through their struggle to express themselves while resisting White domination.

One of the characteristics of neo-colonialism is the demonizing of the colonised individuals culture, to replace it with something that can coexist "peacefully" alongside the systems put in place by the colonizers. Through "the hood", a beautiful culture has been developed. Black America has created its own art movements, music scenes, literature, fashion, and it has developed and evolved more rapidly than capitalist society can keep up with, and a people with a culture, is a people who can not be dominated. Our culture, our music, our visuals, our aesthetics have been appropriated and commodotized by White Supremacy. Yet these same elements and aesthetics are used to justify why we are discriminated against and murdered in the streets. Neocolonialism attempts to "neutralize, to paralyze, its (the colonized subject’s) cultureal life. For, with a strong (indigenous) cultural life, foreign domination cannot be sure of its perpetuation"*. This trend of demonizing Black expression is neocolonialism manifesting itself in American society.

It is in the best interests of White supremacist society, neocolonial society, for me to abandon my culture (because I accept "hood culture" as at least an important element in the revolutionary culture of resistance for Black people in the US), out of fear of not being taken seriously by agents of our oppressors, or of losing my life, because of the way my culture is percieved by the agents of White supremacist society. I refuse to let the politics of respectability guide the way I express myself. I will always put on for the disenfranchized Black youth percieved as ignorant, because our culture is percieved as illegitimate. I see you fam, we really out here.