Her Higher Vibes

A Blog Post Written by Iyesha Gee

In today’s America, you can feel it in the air before you even name it—

Divisive.

Divided.

Climate.

Three words that carry weight on their own, but together they describe the atmosphere many of us live in every single day. Let’s break them down, especially as they relate to Black culture and the world we navigate.

DIVISIVE

Divisive describes anything meant to pull people apart—strategies, narratives, systems designed to fracture unity and keep groups disconnected. For Black people, divisiveness has always been a political tool used against us. You divide a people so they can’t mobilize; you pit communities against one another so they never come together in collective power.

From colorism to classism to proximity-to-whiteness hierarchies, divisiveness has been weaponized against Black culture for generations.

DIVIDED

Divided is the result of divisiveness—the state we are left in after systems succeed in carving lines between us.

A divided people can never fully focus on progress; they’re too busy trying to patch themselves back together.

And yet, time and time again, Black Americans have been forced to rise in a world designed to split us apart—racially, socially, economically, politically, and emotionally.

CLIMATE

Climate is the environment we’re living in.

It’s not just weather—it’s atmosphere, energy, influence, trends, tensions, and cultural temperature.

The climate today?

Confusing, chaotic, unsettling, and intentional.

A climate where people use Black culture for inspiration but don’t want to acknowledge Black suffering. A climate that profits from Black brilliance while ignoring Black struggle. A climate where people romanticize Black history but avoid Black truth.

WHY NON-BLACK PEOPLE SHOULDN’T JUST LOOK TO BLACK HISTORY… BUT TO BLACK ANCESTORS

There’s a difference between learning from forefathers and learning from ancestors.

Forefathers “built systems.”

Ancestors broke chains.

Our ancestors didn’t survive by complying; they survived by resisting—mentally, spiritually, physically, artistically. They challenged unjust systems, questioned authority, protected each other, and demanded dignity.

Non-Black people should learn not only from Black creativity, joy, and excellence—but from Black courage, Black rebellion, Black refusal to accept injustice as normal.

Don’t just admire our art.

Admire the fight that made the art necessary.

ON TAXES, GOVERNMENT, AND OPPRESSION — A REFRAMING

Let’s be real: people are tired of paying into systems that don’t protect them, acknowledge them, or even see them. Many Black Americans feel over-governed but under-supported. But the solution isn’t avoiding legal responsibilities—

it’s using your voice, your vote, your protest, and your collective power to challenge the imbalance.

You don’t change systems by disappearing from them.

You change systems by showing up with purpose, knowledge, and pressure.

HOW WE HEAL THIS DIVISIVE, DIVIDED CLIMATE

We heal by:

1. Choosing community over conflict

Everyday unity matters more than political theatrics.

2. Calling out oppressive systems—but refusing to internalize their labels

You are not what the system calls you.

3. Creating our own spaces, economies, wellness practices, and cultural centers

Black people have always thrived by building—sometimes from absolutely nothing.

Healing isn’t passive; it’s work.

But we’ve always done the impossible.

BLACK AMERICANS ARE THE STANDARD—LET’S SAY IT PLAINLY

We are the standard.

In beauty.

In rhythm.

In style.

In innovation.

In reinvention.

In survival.

In transcendence.

Black culture is simultaneously imitated and disrespected, adored and competed with. The world copies us but rarely credits us, and almost never protects us. That’s why our allies are few—but the ones who are real, the ones who stand beside us without needing applause—those are the ones we hold close.

STORY-TIME: BEING THE ONLY BLACK WOMAN IN A ROOM FULL OF WHITE WOMEN

I remember being the only Black woman in a group of white women who proudly dated rappers and athletes. They sat around bragging that their “men” only dated white women. They said it casually, almost like a trophy they all shared.

I had to remind them—

There are too many Black women of too many shades, too many looks, too much beauty and brilliance—for any Black man to only desire white women.

And any Black man raised by a Black mama, auntie, cousin, godmother, or grandmother…

He doesn’t just like Black women—

He loves Black women.

Because he loves himself.

Because being loved by Black women is the first love many Black boys ever know.

And even if some Black men date white women, it’s not about “preference.”

Often, it’s about access, protection, safety, comfort, and moving through the world without their partner facing the same battles they do.

But the stereotype needs to end.

Black love has always been deeper than appearances.

THE BIGGER POINT

Preferences, ideologies, lifestyles—those vary.

But division is intentional.

It’s designed to create confusion, to rewrite stories, to turn enemies into heroes and heroes into enemies.

We’ve been pulled apart for too long.

And the only way to win is to refuse to participate in their chaos.

Let their divisiveness be their downfall.

Let their obsession be their undoing.

Let their tactics expose themselves.

We don’t have time to fight battles they create.

We’re too busy building what they cannot destroy.

Walk away from the noise like it’s a toxic ex who refuses to change.

Walk toward the people, the communities, the systems that truly pour back into you.

Continue to love who loves you.

Continue to water what waters you.

Continue to rise the way only we rise.

Because even in a divisive, divided climate—

Black Americans continue to thrive, create, rise, reinvent, and set the standard every single day.

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