Love, Belonging, and Home

The Black Experience Across the Globe

Across continents and generations, Black people have carried the weight of migration, displacement, and resilience. From the forced journeys of the transatlantic slave trade to the present-day realities of political exile, economic migration, and seeking refuge, Black communities have continuously redefined what it means to belong. But even in the face of historical and present-day displacement, love, home, and collective care remain at the center of the Black experience.

For African, Caribbean, and Afro-Latinx communities, migration has often been a story of survival and possibility. Yet, whether in the Americas, Europe, or beyond, anti-Blackness shapes the policies that determine who gets to move freely, who is welcomed, and who is denied dignity at borders. We see this in the treatment of Haitian migrants seeking asylum, in African students stranded at European borders during global crises, and in the struggles of Black immigrants fighting for legal status in the U.S. These experiences are not just political—they are deeply personal. They impact how we define home, how we find community, and how we fight to preserve our cultures across generations.

In response, Black people have created belonging in ways that transcend physical borders. Whether through language, food, art, or spiritual practices, cultural preservation becomes an act of resistance. Afro-descendant communities build networks of care and solidarity that stretch from the streets of Salvador, Brazil, to the neighborhoods of London, to the bustling markets of Accra. In every space where Black people exist, love is cultivated—not just as an emotion, but as a radical force of survival and liberation and clusters of actions and choices.

As bell hooks reminds us in All About Love, "Love is an act of will—namely, both an intention and an action." Black communities have long demonstrated that love is not just about sentiment but about creating systems of care, protection, and empowerment. Even in societies that seek to erase or exploit Blackness, love fuels the fight for justice, the demand for dignity, and the determination to build new possibilities where old systems have failed us.

Isabel Wilkerson, in Caste, describes how "caste is the infrastructure of our divisions," exposing the ways in which anti-Blackness functions globally to keep people displaced, disempowered, and disconnected. The systems that restrict Black migration today are rooted in the same hierarchies that have long sought to control Black mobility and limit Black agency. Recognizing this, we must ask: Who gets to belong? Who is granted the right to move? And how can we dismantle these barriers to create a world where all people are free?

As we witness ongoing migration crises, it is critical to challenge the systems that criminalize movement and exile Black people and people in general from spaces they have every right to exist in. It is also important to understand immigration does not have one face and the dangers implicated with seeing it as one people.  Immigration justice is a racial justice issue. Love Before ALL believes in a world where no one is disposable, where every person—regardless of where they were born—has the right to dignity, safety, and a place to call home.

Because home is not just a place—it is the people who hold us, the histories that shape us, and the love that reminds us we belong. 💛🏡

With Love & Power,

Your Curious Cultural Architect