You’re walking down a London street on a damp, but thankfully dry day. You feel okay, but not great. You pass so many faces and sigh because almost none of them look like you. Almost, but one does.
You share something. It’s small, lasts the blink of an eye and is almost imperceptible to others. Though it is quick, it is an affirming, settling display of Black solidarity. Your day lights up the tiniest bit as you keep walking.
If I asked you to guess what just happened, would you have immediately known and said “Yep, that’s the nod.”
Whether the answer is yes or no, you probably have experienced the ‘Black nod’. If we’re getting technical, the Black nod is, as Akala says, an “I’m happy to see you and I’m sorry we share racism as a coherent experience.”
In a world that, at times, does not want to acknowledge us as humans, the nod is the purest form of humanity between two Black people. It is the “I see you and you deserve to be here.”