"There is a burglary that happened. You kind of fit the description." The police officer addressed the random Black man out for his evening run. But so did a teenage girl riding home on her bike, a retired judge taking a leisurely stroll in the park, a boy and an adult male putting out the garbage, and a young man sitting peacefully in his car by the side of the road. If you are Black, you fit the description. You match the description if you are in your eighties and the suspect is a forty-year-old male. If the offender is male with a beard, and you are a girl but happen to be in the vicinity, you match the description. If the shoplifter is White, and the dispatcher repeatedly informs the investigating officers of that fact, and you happen to be picking up a few items on your way home, guess what? You fit the description. The young woman of Song of Solomon asserted her comeliness, but she was only compelled to draw attention to her beauty because of her dark skin. For centuries since then, she has had to call attention to her beauty and her humanity because her mother's children have always doubted she was anything more than a monkey deserving of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. Why are Black people despised in every corner of the globe? Do they have the curse of Canaan stamped upon them? It is possible to dispel such a fallacious assertion; however, Black people call down a curse upon themselves when they abuse their own and align themselves with their oppressors. Black is Beautiful, but it Fits the Description spotlights many instances of innocent, harmless Black people being criminalized solely on the colour of their skin, while some White people are celebrated for their villainy, but it places the task of lifting Blacks from the bottom of the barrel squarely within their hands.
