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Dear Black Men: I Love You and I’m Scared for You
On behalf of the women in your lives, thank you. For everything.
Update 6/7/22: Level has a new home. You can read this article and other new articles by visiting LEVELMAN.com.
I don’t have anything to say about what’s happening right now. I’m spent. All I can say, on behalf of myself and the men and women I represent, we love you. We need you. We respect you. We honor you. We love you.
I’ve been at LEVEL since last summer when this publication was preparing to launch. I thought about making sure we covered fashion. I thought about how to cover politics and entertainment through the right lens. I wanted to make sure we covered what it means not only to be a queer Black man but to be a Black trans man in this world. I wanted grown men of color from all walks of life to see themselves represented. On launch day, we had essays about LEVEL men like Jay-Z and Jordan Peele who exemplify what it means to age with dignity and vulnerability.
The world we all live in is closer to Minneapolis than makes any of us comfortable. In Brooklyn, in Philadelphia, in Oakland, there is no escape. The men I love are always in danger.
