How to fireproof a Black girl in 10 easy steps:

1.) Believe in yourself when even it seems all is lost. You have more within you than they can ever be a cost. Do not abandon you because you is what you have and you is what you will leave with.

2.) Remember all the mammies are dead. You were never supposed to be one, and everything in you has come from victory.

3.) Peace is where you are, peace is what you deserve, and peace is what you fight for: peace of mind, peace of heart, and never a piece of a man.

4.) You have the right to love, and be loved and be loved who you want. You have the determination in your own self to arrest those who bring you no rest! You have to understand love is what brought you into this world, and it is LOVE that holds this place together, as we float through this universe of countless fascinations!

5.) You have the right to flip all this shit over!

6.) You have the right to feel, to be treasured, to be adored, and never fucked. Unless, that’s what you like.

7.) You have the right to cut your hair. Grow your hair! Dye it! Roll it! Frame it!

Slap it, flip it, and reverse it just like Missy Elliott told us to! You have the right to be and change just when and where you want to! You have the right to wear red nail polish now Black girl! With stiletto tip nails and shoes if you see fit!

8.) You have the right to your story—even to rewrite!—and always give the edits to He has sent you to do a great work.

9.) You belong to you. Your life is a gift, and you are needed here. Don’t die with any dream in you.

10.) You have the right to live your life as big as you want as you want as free as you want and who can stop you but you?

If you get confused, sometimes the matches get too close to go back to step one.

-JBHarris, 4.26.2024