Over the course of time and countless postings, I strayed away from my Pro Black focus. I did it intentionally due to the lack of reader support I received when my blogs about matters as Black as me didn’t seem to evoke a chatter about the things I thought mattered. In the recent days of government leadership and how downplayed Black and Brown faces are, I owed it to myself and to my culture to make this one for us. Not stopping there, but reaffirming my initial purpose of building a space were I was free to create and intentionally awakening this pace and a race. I was going back to my roots, my essence of being, and embracing a skin that most men work hard to eliminate. I am reclaiming my time with my Pro-Blackness and making my voice louder during the loudness of the silence.
The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind.
– Maya Angelou
Why? I know many of you are asking why. I have done good with planting seeds of purpose and planning into your lives. I have encouraged you to be greater, to live fearlessly, and all this while loving you. Yet, I forgot to focus on the issues that really build the foundation of who we are, how we see ourselves, and how we allow other people to see us. Black was made to stand out, but we have been programmed to believe that writing and speaking out about what matters to us (Black people) doesn’t scream marketable and unchanging of the beat of the racial drum. I couldn’t allow another day to pass by and my post not speak about the people who constantly fight injustice and the ignorance of a culture who doesn’t see the racial tolerance of their government. Yes, their government! One that doesn’t support me, but speaks of our names to place their names on the list to play the game of vote for me and we shall set you free. Wrong!
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
– Dr. Martin L. King Jr.
It’s celebrated when we don’t speak out against things that aren’t right. It’s expected for us to endure racism and exist in hidden segregation. They want us to believe that building schools that teach children uncommon practices is best for the Black child growing up in urban society. They keep us crowded in the ghetto to fuel the angry, so that we can continue killing off our brother and sisters while their hands stay clean of red blood stains. It’s ok for #45 to calls our brothers and sisters of rich countries “shitholes” and “bad people”. Lacking the intelligence himself to understand that more than 4.5 million Black Americans have received college degrees and majority of them are rebuilding and awakening the Black culture. This is the reason why HBCUs are so important to the culture, but many of us still won’t spend our sons and daughters. It’s just too Black as I have heard many say, but they are OK with being overlooked during their PWI courses and systematically underpaid. I will be silenced no more.
To be colored and silent is to be ignorant and shallow. I am neither the latter. Not every blog will be colorized or a fist rising collection of words, but every so often I will awakening the realities of this world. I will claim what I already owned a piece of this land to grow my own. I will speak of love, truth, life, and change; while standing tall that we deserve a voice to comfort and express the pain. I was off the usual focus on the Saturday blog, but I hope you too will understand the need for my expressions of Black culture and the need to be free.
SayWhatNOW?!?! 