Inspired by the Caitlin Connoly's In Their Image (2017)
“We all come from our origins of black. So it’s beautiful to be that. It’s beautiful to look and be this thing that looks like Christ. But it’s not that big of a deal as people would portray it. What is more important now is not the color of my skin. Representing it and making it known that I won’t tolerate nonsense and racism and things of that nature. Being an activist for a movement, that’s important. The real important thing is to connect to my heavenly race and that’s with God. Recognizing that with God, no color matters. I think a lot of the time, society tries to make you feel like you’re black, you’re white, you’re this [you’re that], so you can feel so secluded, so alone, so marginalized... Whether you like it or not, everyone is the race of red blood… At the end of the day we are all human. We all bleed the same. And when we get to heaven there isn’t a race, it's just everyone is saved. And I think that is the biggest thing that we should focus on. And this doesn’t mean dialing back [on our fight against] the injustice that goes on in a system that is set up against black people. We live in a society that when this system was created, it was created intentionally on the downfall of black people. To see us thrive over that and excell is a miracle… Being black and being alive is a true sign of God’s magic, God’s grace and God’s power.
What society says a black person to be is a criminal. So you can’t listen to what anyone says but what God says. What does God call for us to do? God calls us to be the same black man that Jesus is — compassionate, kind, loving. He sat with everyone. He dealt with every race. He dealt with every ethnicity. He hung out with people that we would never hang out with. That is what being black and proud means to me. I would say [being] black is a privilege of God. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
— John Michael, African American, 30
