Reclaim the Mic: Our Story, Our Voice, Our Rules

Part III of III — Rewriting the Narrative

We’re not asking anymore.

We’re not begging to be seen.
We’re not explaining what we built.
We’re not trying to squeeze our lineage into somebody else’s little box labeled “diversity.”

We’re reclaiming the mic.
And if it makes you uncomfortable? Good. That means you were never supposed to hold it in the first place.

Because the truth is, everybody’s been profiting off the Black American voice—except us.

The think pieces?
The documentaries?
The award shows and museum exhibitions, and “Black History Month” social media campaigns?

All of them pulling from the lives of people who never got a chance to write their own damn stories.

That ends now.

We’re telling it ourselves—raw, layered, and uncut.

We’re telling the stories of stolen mothers, magic grandmothers, hood prophets, and front porch philosophers.
We’re telling the truth about food stamps and freedom, funerals and front-row church trauma, dreams and drumlines.
We’re telling it in our own tongues—broken English, slick talk, prayer hands, and poetry.

Because when we speak, the room shifts.
When we name it, the spirits move.
When we reclaim it, the culture heals.

To the ones who were told to tone it down, shrink it back, be grateful to be included:

You don’t need their permission.
You are the main character, the narrator, and the publisher.

Reclaim your voice.
Reclaim your platform.
Reclaim your grandmother’s recipes, your uncle’s blues records, your mama’s “I said what I said.”

Write it. Speak it. Post it. Print it.
And say it loud, from the back of the throat like your ancestors told you to:

“This story is mine. And I’m telling it my way.”

TO THE ONES WHO ARE THE MIC:
You were never too loud. You were always too powerful.
You don’t need a seat at their table. You built the table.
This ain’t a comeback. This is a return. A restoration. A reckoning.

And they gon’ hear you now.

⟡ THE END OF THE SERIES — BUT NOT THE CONVERSATION ⟡

Drop a comment. Share it with your sisters. Build on it.
Because from this point on, we speak for ourselves.