i’m not urban.

“urban” has become the go-to word in mainstream culture, tossed around in marketing campaigns, classrooms, and “casual” conversation. it’s shielded as a way to describe a social-geography, but let’s be real, it’s used as shorthand for race, culture, and class. and by that usually it’s used as a polite stand-in for Black.

but shocker: i am not a metaphor. i am not a euphemism. i am not “urban”.

when people say “urban,” they usually aren’t talking about a street block or a bus stop. they’re talking about “that type” of music, fashion, slang, or communities associated with Blackness. each time, I hear it, i’m reminded of this poem called “we wear the mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar, where in 15 invigorating lines, he describes the pressure people of color face in order to be “socially acceptable” and taken serious. but as i’ve older, i started to realize that it’s actually less to do with the mask that i wear and more with the mask others choose to put on to approach me. it’s like they feel entitled to put on invisible blackface to connect with me or to “feel me.” they go from speaking to hitting me 90s Black sitcom slang with me; instead of saying “Black culture,” they choose “urban culture.” instead of saying “Black kids,” they choose “urban youth.”

in 5-letters, they belittle and attempt to sanitize blackness into something that feels more digestible, less threatening, and more marketable. it hides what people really mean, while still drawing on stereotypes and assumptions. it reduces us to a vibe or aesthetic, not people with real lives, individual complexities, and diverse spiritual beliefs.

the definition of urban: of, relating to, characteristic of, or constituting a city. Synonyms? metropolitan. local. regional. NOT an adjective to describe a person, rather an area in which a person is from. Similar to when referring to THINGS made in the orient, from asia or “the east,” you say THINGS are oriental NOT people. oriental rugs, oriental medicine, even oriental flavorings (which is still kind of punishing it and is very outdated); that’s it. so, while this may be “overkill” for some, to that i say, congratulations for being privileged enough to never have to defend yourself against systemic weaponized passive-aggression.

i am not “urban” if you’re looking at way in which you can describe me, my name will do. don’t try to use a more marketable, digestible adjective for a highly populated municipality to describe me or my culture. it’s this easy, if you mean Black… say Black.