UNDER ESTIMATED: The Fire We Carry is Their Blindspot
THEY DON’T SEE US
We have been underestimated. Our absence on the stage, in the boardroom, in the decisions, has been accepted as proof of our powerlessness. But it is the greatest miscalculation of their systems.
When systems gaze away, we learn their blind spots. When funds say “no” or “not yet,” we build from memory and margin. We are not waiting for permission. We are not begging for visibility. We are bodies of work, repositories of ancestral vibration—and those who ignore us are ignoring gravity itself.
THE POWER OF THE PRESUMED WEAK
Like immigrants at commencement, undervalued but unbowed, we move through the world with stories that crack open institutions. We are not silent. We are quiet, deliberate, sovereign.
Take my own name—take Kuhn, Brooks, AfriKin. We have always been more than "Black professionals" or “creative entrepreneurs." We are archives walking, memory encoded in movement. It is time the world feels the tremor we've always been sending.
UNMUTE, UNMASK, UNLEASH
Graduates are told: “use your voice.” But our voice is not for graduation—it is for reclamation. It must pierce corporate complacency, disrupt comfort zones, and challenge passive progress.
If you're an artist, platform, or innovator, ask yourself:
Are you performing for their validation—or calling their values into question?
Are you building a better ecosystem—or being invited to the same table with their terms?
Are you standing on stage… or restructuring the stage itself?
WHEN THE SYSTEM UNDERESTIMATES YOU…
They think you're content with crumbs. They think you're grateful for platforms that silence you. They believe they’ve solved inclusion by giving you a seat. But a seat doesn’t end oppression. It only tempers the edges of it.
So we are taking our power in full:
Not by asking for representation, but by becoming essential.
Not by waiting for applause, but by owning the narrative.
Not by playing their game—but by calling checkmate on its board.
OUR WAKE-UP CALL
Yes: They underestimated us. Now we must ensure they remember how.
AfriKin is not entertainment. It is intervention.
I am not a persona. I am remembrance made flesh.
We will not ask for permission to be disruptive.
We will not apologize for reclaiming our right to space, voice, and all we know.
MOVING FORWARD
Create platforms that shake complacency.
Art that stretches limits. Tech that doesn’t just digitize, but decolonizes.
Hold them accountable—loudly.
Call bullshit on tokenism. Call in the silence. Call out the scripts of erasure.
Anchor in memory, not metrics.
You hold ancestral vibration that cannot be quantified—but it reverberates.
If they’ve underestimated us… good.
Let their systems feel the friction of our presence.
We are more than the sum of their expectations.
And as they try to catch their breath, we will walk right past them—because we already did.
UNDER ESTIMATED?
No more.
We rise.
We reclaim.
We DO!
Remember, when we lose our fear, they lose their power!
Asé. And so it is.
— Alfonso Brooks, for AfriKin
CALL TO ACTION:
The AfriKin Art Fair 2025: Through Creation, We Find Meaning is now open for artist submissions. Be part of a historic movement. Tell your story. Share your vision. Heal through creation.
Visit Afrikin.art for more information and submission guidelines.
Community Feedback Request:
We want to hear from you!
What do you think AfriKin can do better?
What would you like to see more of from us in the future?
Please share your thoughts with us by sending an email to info@afrikin.org or leaving a comment below. Your feedback is important to us as we continue to grow and evolve.
