Black.
I have never felt more valued than I do today. Don’t get me wrong there is still a lot of issues that need to be resolved, more battles to fight, more progress to be made, but today—I feel valued.
Literally throughout every single state across the USA, and in several Countries around the world, humans are storming the streets to denounce the wrong doings of a racist agenda that has targeted black people for centuries. I mean wow!!! Who would have thought that a global pandemic would cause the world to pause just long enough to notice and then join us in the fight.
Even as I sit here in this moment of gratitude, I can’t help but think, “what’s next?”. Do we just go back to the way things are? Oh God, I hope not. Here are a few things that I hope we come out of this with:
PRIDE - I pray that we see that God has put inside of every black individual power, influence and most of all, value. Each and every one of us brings something unique to this world that would not exist if not for us.
TOGETHERNESS - The response to this particular issue has shown me that we can mobilize in mass as black people. We can band together around a single cause and be relentlessly focused on the solution. This is a big one because we have the opportunity to turn our shouts into support for each other—putting our money and time where our mouth is to grow together.
OWNERSHIP - This lesson is a big one. As a child I watched my father abandon the main stream and set out to build and own his own. I thought this was just for our family, but I didn’t fully understand the broader significance until a few years ago. We, as a black people, are responsible for building so much of what we have in this country, yet we relatively own almost none of it. Our culture is no longer for sale. Let’s own what we build.
SUPPORT - All around the world I’ve heard more allies (Latino, White, Asian, Indian, etc…) ask the question “How can I support?”. Until now, we’ve mostly been happy with them standing up and shouting to show they are with us. I would suggest that we get very unified and focused with our answer from now on. If they truly want to support us they should give both their time and/or their money. Encourage them to find a black owned business to consistently shop or look for a black community focused charity to donate & volunteer. Their support, together with our focus and work, will help us get the extra boost that we most certainly need.
All in all, I LOVE BEING BLACK! I’m proud of who we are and it gives me great courage that the wrongs against our community are front and center—and the world is with us.
#CarryEverything