First and foremost, I am Black.

First and foremost, I am Black.

I was born Black, I was raised in a Black culture, I’ll still be Black when I die

I am Black before I’m of any particular political leanings

I am Black before I’m of any sexual orientation

I am even Black before any gender designation

I am also Black even before I’m a writer

There is not one single thing I do that is not done through the lens of my blackness, even my sexual encounters are an expression of my Blackness, moving to the rhythm of the drums synched with the rhythm of my heart. When I write is to the melody of hip hop, troubadours, compass and other musical genres I grew up with. When I eat, my tastebuds seek out the flavors of the islands, of my ancestry. When I read, watch a movie, I’m always thinking, what would we have done? Or Man they should have tried this with a Black person! I may bleed red, but my blood is black.

I get the feeling some of you don’t actually know what that means. It’s not really your fault, because your identities are wrapped up with your nationality, they ain’t the same thing. Your nationality is part of your identity it shouldn’t be the total sum of it. I said once that some demographic have lost their identity, but that’s a mystery for them to solve.

Anything I mentioned in the beginning can be part of my identity, but if I lose one, I’ll still be Black. And it has little to do with my skin tone. When I say I’m Black, I do not mean my skin is Black, it’s kind of on the lighter side anyways. It means that my identity is informed by my culture. The reason we can say not all Skin Folk are Kin Folk is because some chose to shed their culture and identity as if they were removing a shirt. Don’t personally know how they can do it, to me it seems more like they are fooling themselves, but it’s their lives to fool.

Which leads me back to writing, when I write I do not write as a leftist, democrat, progressive, liberal, I write as a Black person. I understand that non Black folks write from their own perspectives also, which is why you don’t see me going around people’s diaries and cussing them out for thinking differently than me. I will only step in when it comes to racisms and sexism, because then it is about me. And even if I do I will not do so by denigrating the writer.

I write about social and racial issues because those are the things that affect me and my community, I also write about the economy and politics cause that affects us all. But I resent the hell out of the fact that I feel like I have curate my thoughts and opinions because some of you only see stuff through the lens of your current political affiliations, likes and dislikes. It would be SO easy for you to look at a text, see the context, see the writer and go “Oh that’s a Black person writing about Racism” and CHILL. But since you can’t remove your affiliations from your eyes, you have to go into that entry and talk about AIPAC and Genocide, and unrelated stuff, because you’ve made that your identity. You can’t seem to see beyond that. Or you are racist. You decide.

I wrote a whole angry bitter rant last night, which I chose not to post (it was very bad!), but I have to address the issues raised yesterday, because otherwise I cannot keep writing here. Not because I don’t have support, I do. But because I’m me, I don’t like name calling, belittling people (remember my Joke diaries), I don’t like strife, I write to share with you, to have discussion as if we were old friends chatting at a lunch table, yes it can get heated and loud, but never mean and cruel. That’s the difference a lot of “you can’t take critics” folks choose to ignore. And I say choose, because if they stepped back they would see they are taking things out on me because they don’t see me as a human but as an opposition to their opinions, something to destroy.

I am my own person, do not lump me in with people you have strife with, or chastise me for the actions of some political faction you’ve decided to place me in without even bothering to ask me, not once have I been asked how I identify politically? But yesterday some felt bold enough to file me under “white supremacist” “religious fanatic” “AIPAC paid shill” “third way” “woke”, got me there I do admit to being woke. Anyways.

*Added: Someone said I was here for money, let me make something crystal clear, I need money I am not here for money there’s a big difference. I’m ill, I have heart arrythmia, diabetes, high blood pressure and severe allergies, my kid has sever asthma. I can’t work a normal job and the war is taking a shot at my fixed income, while instead of translating I’m now an AI translation corrector which pays WAY less. So yes I ask for help, I could make a substack, self publish a poetry book, but know what? I feel even more uncomfortable asking folks to pay for reading my ramblings than asking for help. But I am not ashamed of needing help. Life is shitty. And to the person who said that? I hope you NEVER need help in your life.

So in summary, I’m Black, I will continue to write about racial issues, call out racism when I see it on a fairly regular basis. My suggestion is if that’s not your particular brand of coffee… don’t drink.

#TheAmericanHaitianPoet

Muriel Vieux – April 8^th, 2026 – ©All rights reserved

Paypal.me/murielvieux