Discernment vs. Flinching

Video Transcript

Some of y’all ain’t discerning shit.
You flinched.
You flinched when love got too close.
You flinched when softness looked like a setup.
You flinched when someone didn’t raise their voice to you—so you raised yours first.

That ain’t discernment. That’s the ghost of survival telling you the wind is a weapon.”

---

Flinching is a nervous system memoir I need you to get it.
A learned twitch.
The way your ancestors flinched at door knocks.
The way your mama flinched at the phone ringing past midnight.

The way you flinch at good mornings like they’re scams.

In Black men?
Flinching sounds like, “I gotta be a man about it,”
but it's really just, “I was never allowed to be a boy.”

HOLD ON

In Black women?
Flinching sounds like “I don’t need anybody,”
but it's really just, “Nobody came when I did.”

We’re not choosing independence—
we’re reacting to abandonment.

This leads to a state of False Discernment

Discernment is not trauma that learned grammar.
It’s not suspicion dressed in Sunday clothes.
It’s not calling your triggers "intuition"
because they learned to speak in your mother’s tone.

Real discernment comes from peace.

Not performance. Not paranoia.
You can’t trust your gut when your gut’s been hungry for years.
You can’t trust your head when it only learned safety through control.

Some of y’all think you’re hearing God.
But it’s just the echo of the last person who hurt you.

---

Flinching isn’t just personal—
it’s political architecture embedded in the Black psyche.

We flinched from organizing because we saw COINTELPRO eat our prophets.

We flinched from voting because we saw ballots burned and leaders gunned down.

We flinched from unity because every Black Messiah was crucified before 40.

We flinched from hope because white liberals taught us to confuse pity with progress.

Flinching is how the system taught us to stay put without chains.

It made us so reactionary that we confuse freedom with fighting forever.

So now we vote with numb fingers, protest with bruised throats,
and choose chaos over change because stillness feels like danger.

But discernment politically?
Means knowing when to strategize, not just when to react.
Means knowing what’s a pressure point and what’s just a projection loop.
Means remembering: you’re not on the plantation anymore—
but your nervous system might be.

---

Some of y’all flinch at “I love you”
like it’s a countdown to betrayal.
You love people in small doses
because you were raised on rationed affection.

You self-sabotage just to feel like you’re in control.
You chase chaos because peace is unfamiliar.
You don’t trust calm—it never came without a cost.

You think you’re discerning. You’re just flinching with vocabulary.

---

So here’s the question I have for you, because we still have more time.

Can you tell the difference between discernment and defense?

Discernment expands.
Flinching contracts.
Discernment makes room for soul.
Flinching makes rules for survival.

Discernment is God's whisper.
Flinching is your ghost screaming.

So again I ask:

If you laid down your sword, could your spirit still stand or can it only rise with a blade in hand?

Because healing isn’t about who gets in.
It’s about what part of you finally dares to come out.

Discernment is internal, not external.

You will flinch from this world.

But it's about recognizing the voice of God in yourself.

The voice of kindness in yourself.

Where discernment lies.

Instead of listening to the voice that tells you to hold onto the thorns in the wind.

---