What Would Zora Say About Social Media and Finding Your Authentic Voice?

Now listen here, somebody's always trying to tell you how to be, how to speak, how to show yourself to the world. Social media is just the newest plantation, if you ask me—everybody watching everybody else, everybody performing for an audience that don't even know their real name. The difference between then and now is that back in my day, you could at least go out to the porch and tell your stories to folks who were looking you dead in the eye.

But here's what I know: your authentic voice is the only thing worth having. When I wrote my novels, when I collected those stories from my people down in Florida, I didn't write for the critics or the universities or the people who wanted Black folklore to be something pitiful and broken. I wrote what I heard, what I felt, what was TRUE. That's what made it matter.

If you're on these newfangled social platforms, don't go performing for the algorithm. Don't sand down your edges to be palatable. The world has enough of that watered-down mess. You got something to say? Say it the way only YOU can say it. Use the vernacular of your people, celebrate the particular beauty of your community, tell your stories with all the spice and seasoning they deserve.

The tragedy I see is people trying to make themselves into something acceptable, something safe, something that won't challenge nobody. That's death of the spirit right there. Your language, your culture, your way of seeing the world—that's where your power lives. Don't you dare diminish it for likes or followers or approval from people who never understood us anyway.

Find your voice like you're finding water in the desert. Desperate. Absolute. Non-negotiable. Then speak it loud enough that it echoes.