Chapter 3: CP Time

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As Black folX, we were never meant to move linearly through time and space. CP Time is an example of Black folX’s –

effort to evade, frustrate and ridicule the value-reinforcing strictures of punctuality that so well serve this cold impersonal technological society. Time is the very condition of Western civilization which oppressed so brutally. Yet if one, obviously, can no more evade time than one can escape from oneself, one can still seek to minimize its effects, which can only be done by finding solid ground on which to defend oneself, on which to operate. And, solid or not, the only ground one now has is space itself. One’s personal victory, then, is achieved through the fashioning of an individual style that will enable one to operate in space, to occupy it, indeed to come to invigorate the space in which one finds oneself with a sense of oneself, one’s vision, values, limitations, resources, aims. Accommodation with the temporal is attained through one’s facility in utilizing the spatial – particularly that peculiar and mysterious entity which is the self” [4]. 

The modern concept of time was created by white supremacy as a form of capitalism, thus a form of oppression. As Black folX, we have to prioritize our emotional, physical, spiritual, and mental well-being in a society that does not care for our existence. Recovering from 400 plus years of trauma and the effects of colonialism, we have to reclaim time and space. 

The systems that have created the modern meaning of time are rooted in exploiting an individual’s work. In exploiting time and labor, time is cold and harsh to the needs and disabilities one may have. In reclaiming spaces, Black folX have unconsciously been reclaiming time through “colored people’s time.” Meant derogatory by those outside the Black community who use it and amused by others within the community, CP Time is ultimately recovering time and rest lost. Our ancestors fought for future generations like me to exist and rest. For the Afrofuture to come to fruition, we must prioritize rest. The effects of white supremacy have led to the idolization of exploitation and grind culture that leads to burnout [5]. Black WomXn and Black folX are exhausted. Our labor has come with no reward but repeat and the evolution of American enslavement. 

Forced production is tiring. The patriarchy is tiring. Black folX are tired. Black WomXn are especially tired.

[4] (2021, The Nap Ministry).

[5] (1972, Hughes and Morrison)