Butterflies are free to fly (By Harris Bostic, II)

Butterflies Are Free To Fly!

As a Black man living in San Francisco, I sometimes feel seen for who I am but oftentimes feel seen as a bug that must be squashed and swept away. This feeling is increased with the seemingly daily dwindling of Black residents in The City.  This is in stark contrast with my upbringing in Atlanta, the Black Mecca of the South, where for each hostile face that scowled at me, there were scores of beautiful brown faces that not only beamed at me but challenged me, and lifted me. 

Recently, as I sat on my sunny cool San Francisco patio, I saw a number of insects going about their business in my garden. So, that prompted to call my sister 3,000 miles away to ask, “what do you think of cockroaches?”  Her immediate response was , “Ewww, I prefer seeing them on their backs with their legs in the air.”  Then I asked what she thought of butterflies.  This led into a description that included elegant, peaceful, transformed creatures that glide through the sky displaying natural beauty. 

So, I responded with a heavy “hmmm”. Then I began to make these two questions analogous to how we as humans see each other.  White people, especially white women, are often seen and treated like floating butterflies; whereas, Black people, especially black men, are often seen and treated like diseased cockroaches.  

Of course, this oversimplifies it but how do we change our feelings about something that is so deeply rooted within us?  Then I asked, “what would it take to change your opinion of cockroaches”, which she asserted, “nothing—I’m not sure there is anything that could change that.” After a pause, she said, "but you know what, I can’t have a conversation with a cockroach. I can’t peek into their habitat and learn what motivates them. But I can talk to another human and I would want a white person, or any other person, to talk to me and find out what we have in common, how we differ, our aspirations and so on!”  My takeaway from this revealing conversation with my sister is that as Blacks in America, we must be seen and treated more as the high-flying, wondrous beings that we know we are!