Monday, January 12, 2015

#counternarrative

http://www.mprnews.org/story/2015/01/06/jamal-abdur-salaam

whiteness and Me

As a person of color, for me to talk about being white, whiteness and white culture, forces me to acknowledge the ways that I have been conditioned in whiteness and how that whiteness shows up in me. That is an unfriendly and devastating place for some of us to be, I know that I have wrestled with that as I discover how whiteness has, does and will continue to affect and effect the way that I show up in the world.  The understanding, realization and acceptance that I am as permeable to whiteness as dirt is to rain, as a racial equity champion, is a discussion I would most times like to avoid.  The more I see you (white people), the more I see my own reflection and conditioning in the world and then it no longer is just YOUR problem, it is a reminder that it is mine too because all along I have been an active, regular and normed participant in my own demise and oppression.

Thursday, December 18, 2014

Steal Kill and Destroy

The enemy doesn't have to take all of your stuff. The enemy takes just enough to get you in the habit of living with lack. The enemy normalizes abnormal behavior to the point you will self sabotage in order to get the lack you think you deserve. We have to make that which is abnormal, not ok. We have to make abnormal an insult to God. We have to make abnormal an insult to ourselves. We spend so much time giving the enemy credit for the destruction in our lives, credit he doesn't deserve. The enemy begins the process by telling us lies we swallow and inhale as the truth and then we say with our actions... Ok, thanks, I'll take it from here....

Highlighters

I wish you would
Read me with a pen in hand
Underline and highlight those parts of me that are good, that are hurting, that need attention. Instead of highlighting my flaws and mistakes. It's as though those mistakes are highlighted in multiple colors as to not forget, its a reminder of what you need to say as you are shutting me down. How about a breath and a pause, a moment to reflect before you react to my fears and insecurities with your highlighted and underlined note cards of who I used to be.

I...am...changing...

I am changing
Can you keep up with the new me?
Will my past ways of being dictate your current vision of who I am?
Perhaps it's hard to accept,  but I want to be a better version of who I used to be. No pretense. No fear. No anger. No suspicion. No worries. Just trust. And love. And contentment. Don't want to roll the way I used to. Funny though that what I used to do and be is all you can see. Got that measuring stick out when I'm bad,  can't seem to find it when I'm good. Selective memory of what it means to be a real woman with real purpose and real needs and real feelings. If I cant be what you want me to be then don't let me break your stride. Don't let me break your pride.

I shall not disrobe and remove my jewels from my crown to make it easier for you to carry.

I...AM...CHANGING. ..

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

#blacklivesmatter

The fact that our lives have boiled down to a hash tag...

#blacklivesmatter

We have become such a fad, that even our meaning has become a fad... #blacklivesmatter

We have to use a hash tag to remind people of our humanity, of our lives, of our worth

Like when we used to have to safety pin our gloves to our jackets so we wouldn't forget

We have to hash tag, and make flyers, and make t-shirts and burn some stuff down in order to keep the importance of our lives at least at the forefront of our own minds. (Most of y'all will miss that)

Let's break that down, we hash tag and tag and make shirts with visual meanings attached only so we can remind ourselves as we sit in the center of this oppressed world that MY #blacklife matters or does my #blacklifematter? Cause when have #blacklivesevermattered?

When was the last time you saw #whitelivesmatter ??

 You haven't, you know why?

Because there is no reason to make that which is visible a hash tag.

You only make hash tags of those things you don't want people to forget...

Sooo, as a reminder to you good people....  #blacklivesmatter


In the Center

What is at the Center of your desires?  What is at the Center of your hopes and dreams?  What is at the Center of your motivation? What is at the Center of who you are?  When you are able to find the answer to the Center, you will be heading in the right direction, no matter where you go...

Meanwhile

meanwhile

you grapple you hesitate
meanwhile my sons die
you question and prepare
meanwhile my sons die
you pause and plan
meanwhile my sons die
you strategically wonder and pontificate
meanwhile my sons die
you are sad and paralyzed
meanwhile my sons die
you wait for others to do impatiently
meanwhile my sons die
you think and think and think and think
meanwhile my sons die
you feel and feel and feel for yourself
meanwhile my sons die
you create the illusion of righteous anger
meanwhile my sons die
you cry and whine and cry and whine
meanwhile my sons die
you mean well
meanwhile my sons die
you're nice
meanwhile my sons die
you take care of your own
meanwhile my sons die
you shake your head at injustice as you walk away
meanwhile my sons die
you go back to life as is
meanwhile my sons die

@tnas_44

12.9.2014




Monday, August 25, 2014

Justice

Justice can't keep pausing in order to get past the temporary shroud of politeness.

Saturday, July 12, 2014

YES...NO

It is much easier to say no when you know what your saying yes to.

Humanity

Our humanity is connected without our consent or approval, Accept it and say YES to LIFE.

Believe

It is in the believing where life takes new meaning and purpose and can find its way. 

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Perspective

Pain is relative to your situation.
It can be a bully to vulnerability 
and a coward to HOPE.

Keep Pressing Forward

BLACK STAR KNOWLEDGE OF SELF

                                              This is a picture of an amazing Black Man. 
They do exist and are only as extinct as we raise them to be.  Community, Think on That.

Seeds

Lately I have been thinking about all the seeds that have been dropped but have not come to fruition in my life.  It is because of this that I though I was not successful, not realizing that the place in which I put my seed wasn't ready.  How did I not recognize and know enough to say this isn't the right place or time? Perhaps I was ahead of my time or perhaps the pride in love or blind ambition to change the world muted all of the signals that said STOP,WAIT, SLOW DOWN.... 

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Blood Isn't Relevant

My husband and I have been blessed to have many children.  Some are our natural children and some aren't.  But that isn't important.  What is important is the love that we share as a family.  We laugh together, love together and learn together.  There is no difference in treatment between our children.  We hold them to the same standard, regardless of their past.  There is nothing in the future or the present that is holding them back, and that is what we focus on.  I am such a proud mother.  I love my kids so much and am honored that God would choose me of all the people in the world to be a parent to them.  Is it hard sometimes, OH YEAH! But the challenges are outweighed by the joy I feel when they are successful and when they believe in themselves enough to take a chance to move beyond their past and focus on their future.  They have adopted us as much as we have adopted them.  Its a two way street.  My kids are my life, my motivation and it fulfills the purpose that God has for me on this earth.  I know I was born to do this, or at least I think I am.  They know that the future is theirs for the taking and that we will always be here for them... But one thing I know is that I love them and they know I do....

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Black Boys and Sports - They can't all be the next Jordan

Even the most intelligent start the introduction to my sons with the same question, "So, what sports do you play?" Not, how are your grades, are you a scholar, what college are you planning to attend or what do you want to do when you graduate.  We encourage our kids to go to school, but we give more props to them as athletes, than as scholars.  Now I love sports and I am all for kids playing sports and aspiring to play in college and professionally, BUT they all can't be the next Jordan. 
We need doctors, and entrepreneurs, and business men and sneaker designers and teachers and good fathers and faithful husbands....

Tough Guy

Why do we have to be so hard? What does toughness prove in the very end? When we embrace the inability to cry and to feel, who benefits? Life isn't made easier by  trying to maintain through toughness, through brick walls covering glass houses. We teach our boys not to cry and our daughters not to feel as a coping mechanism and when they grow old, they don't know how to treat each other because they are so used to hiding who they really are. 

The Dash In Between

As I observed the funeral services for my grandmother, the one thing that touched me was the statement my dad made while delivering her Eulogy.  He stated he didn't need to write a Eulogy for her funeral - her life was  her Eulogy.  How she lived, that dash in between, was her Eulogy, it spoke louder than any preacher or speaker could about her life.  Her life, a testament to who she was, is one that couldn't be edited, couldn't be sweetened up and made something it was not.  She wrote, signed and dated her funeral with her life and it was amazing. Plain and simple.