Our Black skin is the source code for your vitriol, your hate.

It is your rationale for denying us equal rights, protections and privileges under the law.

But now you seek to berate us for gathering together to celebrate our Black African heritage, our overcoming the legacy of slavery and oppression, and presently micro-aggressions designed to cast you as hero, us as villains.

Your phishing for a way to get under our Black skin is laughable.

Hearts, minds and souls rife with fragility.

When Black people gather, we’re not seeking your approval, your disdain, or even your permission.

We’re just leaning on each other, now more than ever, for the love and support that the unenlightened few among you have historically denied us.

What you fail to acknowledge is you are even welcome in these spaces, our Black Spaces.

But don’t think we’re going to bite our tongues to make you feel comfortable.

Our struggle is real.

Narratives of Black pain and suffering at your hands will be told.

Since 1619, we have been the arbiters of unconditional love and neighborly compassion.

Wholly committed to attaining our inalienable rights to life, liberty, the opportunity to pursue happiness.

We’re now looking inward, ignoring your mythological color scheme, so we can work collaboratively with like-minded others to perfect our imperfect union

(c) Copyright 2026 by Jeffery A. Faulkerson. All rights reserved.

Commemorating my father, Edward Allan Faulkerson, who passed away on Friday, October 2, 2026.

When I received word of your passing, I must admit, it hit me like a ton of bricks.

The life that we shared was filled with more hits than misses because we always made our way back to center.

But now you are gone.

Opportunities to explore our shared history only existing with the temporal beings bearing our surname.

I, we, must now move on, confident that you’re standing with us from there while we are here.

But what does that even mean – you being there, us being here?

I know there is a God, and I know he is the one who called you home.

But I selfishly question God for summoning you in his time and not mine.

We had agreed to live life forward, not backwards, focusing on the things that made you you and me me.

No sense harping on the unchangeable past when the future is there for the making.

I laid my head on my pillow last night, restless, but assured that the sun will rise on us in the morning.

But today, we lay your body to rest, anticipating that moment when we will see you again.

We know you’re holding court with God and his angels, the disciples and all the other biblical saints.

You became that guy, the one who relates well with others.

You also became the father I always wanted through the love you showed my wife, son and me.

But I also appreciate the fact that you are the progenitor that allowed our mothers to birth or adopt your children, children who have gifted you with grandchildren and great grandchildren who are destined to do great things.

Thank you, Dad, for living life out loud.

Thank you, Dad, for admonishing me to apply myself when my ascent faltered.

More than anything, Dad, thank you for being APOLOGETICALLY YOU.

(c) Copyright 2026 by Jeffery A. Faulkerson. All rights reserved.

WHAT IF YOU DISCOVERED THAT THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR NEVER ENDED, IT JUST STARTED BEING WAGED ON DIFFERENT FRONTS?

Book One in the BLACK Novel Series, The Bear on Our Backs, seeks to explore this question by telling the story of Jason Black, an elite, Black American sprinter who is vying to compete for gold in the 100-meter dash at the 2016 Rio Summer Olympic Games. But Jason’s preparation for these games is interrupted when he is forced to defend himself against Roscoe Baker, the white security guard that holds him at gunpoint during a late-night response to a neighborhood disturbance.

While awaiting the start of his jury trial at the Black-owned and operated Sojourner Vista Resort and Conference Center, Jason has an epiphany about what he and other black athletes, intellectuals and entrepreneurs can do to reconstruct Black labor today for the jobs of tomorrow. But standing in his way is Malcolm Stillwell, a 76-year-old, white businessman from Manhattan, New York, who wants to use interest in Jason’s court case against Roscoe Baker to sow racial division and hate as he vies for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination. Unbeknownst to Jason, securing the United States presidency is nothing more than a start for Stillwell, as he and agents of the shadowy Confederate States of America escalate their infiltration of the Republican Party in their ongoing effort to use governmental powers to resurrect the Confederate South.

Meet Bronson James, a character featured in J. A. Faulkerson’s #novel “BLACK: The Bear on Our Backs” and #screenplay “#RECONSTRUCTION: Power Cell and one of the first professional Black athletes to contribute 10% of his annual income to BLACK Global, Inc.’s BLACK Fund. #nba #nbaplayoffs #newyorkknicks #oklahomathunder #sanantoniospurs #blackexcellence #blackempowerment #nikolehannajones #michaelericdyson #michaelharriott #filmmakers #producers #directors #featurefilm

A short video featuring Mama Joyce Truth Washington, a character featured in J. A. Faulkerson’s novel “BLACK: The Bear on Our Backs”. Here, she reminisces about her first impressions about a younger Jason Black and how she helped him shape his ideas about BLACK Global, Inc.

NEW COVER for J. A. Faulkerson’s BLACK: The Bear on Our Backs. (Left to right: Cornelius Newman, Tribe Records; Kelvin Cochran, Thurgood Marshall Law Group; Jason Black, Tennessee Track and Field; Tobias Gaines, Sojourner Investigations, Security, Protection; Thelma St. James, Thurgood Marshall Law Group.

Click here to READ SAMPLE CHAPTERS and PURCHASE HARDCOVER EDITION ($19.99).