Javon Johnson explains what it’s like being a Black man in America

Javon Johnson is a Black man in America, and he has a spoken word piece sums up how it feels.

According to the U.S. Census, 63% of Americans are white. Which means 37% of our country probably at some point has to deal with this horrifying fact.

In about three minutes, Javon Johnson explains what it’s like being black man in America.

The spoken word artist shares in a poem, his conversation with his young nephew on the unfortunate reality of being a black man.

The piece is called “Cuz he’s black”

Check out this compelling piece by Javon Johnson I’m sure you won’t forget.

Javon Johnson is an Assistant Professor and Director of African American & African Diaspora studies and holds an appointment in Gender & Sexuality Studies in the Interdisciplinary, Gender, and Ethnic Studies Department at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He received his Ph.D. in Performance Studies with a certificate in Gender Studies and Cognate in African American Studies from Northwestern University in 2010.

Dr. Johnson has several books including first book, Killing Poetry: Blackness and the Making of Slam and Spoken Word Communities (Rutgers University Press 2017), unpacks some of the complicated issues that comprise performance poetry spaces and argues that the truly radical potential in slam and spoken word communities lies not just in proving literary worth, speaking back to power, or even in altering power structures, but instead in imagining and working towards altogether different social relationships.

Johnson’s second book, The End of Chiraq: A Literary Mixtape (Northwestern University Press (2018) is a co-edited book that critically creatively explores Chiraq.