Changing the Narrative

I recently returned from a trip to Jamaica.  Hundreds of individuals from the US who looked like me peppered the beaches of Negril on a “runcation.”  While there, I entered into dialog regarding the narrative of people defined as “Black” or “African American” within the US. Discord arose when I stated, “no amount of protest will change the perceived condition of those who are defined as Black/African American in the US.” Why? To borrow the words of a gentleman I met from Palestine… “It is not a law issue, it is a heart issue.”  As long as a society we continue to segment life into Black and White, and in some cases Brown, we ostensibly leave out an entire segment of people who do not fit these categories.  Additionally, we continue to foster the concept that White is the litmus by which all others are measured. 

In 1851 Sojourner Truth delivered her speech now commonly known as, “Ain’t I a Woman.”  In a transcript of the time she made no reference to her blackness, she simply, spoke on the behalf of women, all women, in the struggle for women’s suffrage.  Now, over 150 years later, we still speak along the color lines.  Individuals will debate the point that “we didn’t make the rules.”  On this I agree; however, when will we decide it’s time to break the rules of race that currently exist?

I am a fighter, an advocate for individuals, in most instances children, regardless of race, who are disenfranchised among us.  I have children from every color on the spectrum, I fight equally as hard for those who are colored white as I do for those colored yellow, brown, and black.  I have no choice. It is against my DNA to not fight for “the least of these.”  When I see #blacklivesmatter it is, in my view, redundant at best, of course #blacklivesmatter because #alllifematters.  While we are fighting, let’s fight to change the dialog from a Black life being different from the life of another.  How do we start this?  By discontinuing qualifying life by color.  It is obvious that the individuals who died, some say who were murdered, had black skin.  As long as we continue to call them by color, we continue the concept that they are different, somehow less than others.

 

We have to break the cycle.  We cannot continue to define manhood and womanhood by whiteness with all others being a hyphenated.  I understand that some will be frustrated by my words.  They will perceive my words to be that I am anti-Black or not in support of #blacklivesmatter.  Quite the contrary, I am a staunch supporter of life, the dialog must shift from black and white and move to human to human.  In the words of one of my heroes, Frantz Fanon, “When we revolt it’s not for a particular culture. We revolt simply because, for many reasons, we can no longer breathe.” 

“If the structure does not permit dialogue the structure must be changed” Paulo Freire.  We cannot dialogue in a system that is built on the concept that one group is more “human” than another based on color.  We cannot use the words of a system that were designed to justify the enslavement of others.  We have to move outside of that system, not in an effort to deny our cultural heritage, but by way of embracing who we are individually and collectively.  Bob Marley said it best, “until the philosophy which hold one race superior and another inferior…until the color of a man’s skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes…until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race…there is war.”

Let’s use the tragedies that have occurred to unpack the baggage of privilege.  Let’s use the travesties that have occurred to unpack the baggage of racism.  Let’s use this time in history to be “sick and tired of being sick and tired,” Fannie Lou Hamer.  The future of our children depends on it.