I Was Erased From the Constitution of the United States and Maybe That's What I Needed As A Black Woman

 An essay by Tahyira Savanna

Dear Diary,

Yeah its Tee Slaves! Das my rap moniker by thee way.  You can find all of my music via a Google search these days but if you're looking for my freedom, well, you are going have to go back, like really far back, like I'm saying one hundred plus years back.  Within the last eight business days, I have celebrated the end of slavery for the first time on June 19th, 2022 as well as suffer a loss to my human right to body autonomy on Fridy June 24th, 2022 by a reversed Supreme Court decision.   Welcome to the United States of America in a post-Nazi-like regime.  I was not shocked like many of the folks I see on twitter and Instagram.  I was a part of a movement since January to bring forth awareness on the importance of using our collective voice as women and the power each American has within their votes.  I joined the TMI Project Stories for Choice storytelling showcase which created a safe space for me to share my own abortion story.  I was taken back by how emotional it all felt finally releasing that story.  I felt like it was a big part of my activism that I kept quiet.  Not because of any shame or reasoning, more so because there is rarely space to openly discuss women's health issues.  When I learned the term "reproductive justice" I began wearing it as a badge of honor.  I have a few badges already, Black Lives Matter since Trayvon, feminist since Hilary, and pro-education since Trump.  It has been a stressful time but I find my spirit moves me towards solving problems rather than rehashing them for social clout.  

Being Black, is effin great, Idk what the haters say...

That's the lyrics to the lead song off my upcoming EP called, DISCONNECTED, and that I still am.  I listen to the music with a sense of annoyance.  I know I need to say what I'm saying but I am really tired of having to say it.  I do get another vibe when I perform however so inspiration is never far away.  During the SCOTUS nominations of Ketanji I told my parents that I felt very very low.  I suffer from bouts of bipolar depression also known as a mood disorder characterized by manic episodes.  I am the person who has a change in their personality, their energy, their thought patterns, and their triggers when outside factors start to get to far in.  At 30, my triggers were focused around my parents and a lot of the childhood nonsense I endured.  At 35, it is triggered when I see myself mirrored.  It's usually situations now like Breonna and George all colliding in the same week.  It's by watching the events on January 6th occur in real time knowing if you even thought about it your thought's themselves would be shadow-banned immediately, just for the thought.  It happens to me when I spend a week surveying Black leaders like Mrs. Brown-Jackson, who has to stand up in a pulpit against white nationalist loving, those seeking the removal of white evilness through educational revamps, and happily stealing elections just to stay in political power, try to deny her a seat.  We all know the vibes.  They are afraid of everyone whose skin pigments are akin to Former President Barack Obama.  Why do white people hate Black empowerment so much? They think we're going to pull "a them on them".  Well they had it all wrong.  It took another Caucasian like Donald Trump to fall into power for the World to see how whitely broken this system has always been.  It was stolen from the indigenous and built by the slaves. Now the same types of people in 2022, are securing their own futures by reverting laws.  Begs the question, if white evilness never existed, how did the American system become so broken? They know and we know, that’s why leadership needs a color change to ever truly be a strong defending democracy.  If someone can manipulate a political landscape that controls 100% of how citizens are legislated to live their day to day lives then when will votes actually make a difference.  If the system is broken, what’s keeping it functional.  Our paychecks turned tax dollars.  At the protest at Washington Square last week, people kept repeating, ‘break the system’ by voting.  But I’ve been voting since 2008, all I get to say is that I knew it was broken since I learned about in a historically white university.  Perhaps it’s the over-educated, rebel like minded revolutionaries, that survived the 9/11 attacks, living in a assault weapons free for all killing children as the learn, that can change the system.  After we break it of course.

Keep going, it’s actually getting pretty darn interesting 🇺🇸

Love Tee