With less than a month until his visit to his family in Tacoma, Washington Sam is working on the desired look. Being in brown skin, raised in a very white state and in a white home I watch as he seems to absorb every morsel of what-is-Blackness he can from the world around him.

I attempt to witness and validate how he integrates this into his daily experience of self-in-the-making.

Marcel opted out of the fresh cut this time. He is growing his hair out, today. His exploration of his racial identity is something he has been less empowered to explore historically.

By that I mean I realized recently that I have had this attitude that he would be fine for the last several years.  Part of the journey we’re about to go on his about me waking up too. His path is just as important and deep as Sam’s.