Mobilize for Change

Dear Brother and Sisters,

The call for us has been ringing loud throughout history.  There is so much that was left undone, when prominent leaders of the Black community were sentenced to life, murdered, or had to flee this nation to remain alive.  The habitual cycle of murder to those we love has paralyzed us.  But I am writing to you today because there is an urgent need for action.

Yes, we have unequivocally joined the police department, provide entertainment through our abilities as athletes, musicians, and entertainers.  We are directors, sitting in the C-Suite, working in vast industries, with mounting educational accolades.  A number of us are also trapped by poverty.  I know firsthand that our struggle, no matter where we are, in our journey as Black men or women, is real, is difficult, and has a lasting impression on how we navigate our next move.

Many of us are focused on being able to provide financially for our own families, and that focus is not all wrong, but it stands to be evaluated.  What good will it do to preserve and save your own family, when the world around them is experiencing destruction? Will they be able to come out, walk around, experience a life, with the world in a blaze around them?  Many of us have cried, are crying, have been enraged, and we are in rage.  Tired of hearing about how we must have patience, for what is 400+ years in the making.  The freedom of true democracy, true justice, true freedom to express and live in our Blackness.  So, yes,  I understand our recourse of violence.  The burning, the looting, the destruction – it in its proper vernacular it is called rebelling.  A cry for help, a cry for better days, and a way to stand in our pain – a pain which we so often do not have words to express.  A point in time when we scream enough is enough, through our actions of expression.

We have a moment.  Another moment in time when we use this platform to come together for the same cause – the same purpose – the same mission.  The mission of overturning the systematic racism we have been experiencing.  The mission of taking back our narrative, changing the course of history, writing one again into the untold stories of the Black struggle. Many of you are wondering how we accomplish such a big mission.  I have sat with this question for a long time, and here are some thoughts I have:

1.     WE STOP OUR PARTICIPATION in the system.  What does that mean…It means for 30 days we live with the supplies we do have?  We set a date and we stop being consumers.  We stop spending outside of the BLACK community.

2.     WE STOP OUR PARTICIPATION at work.  I know scary.  How will we maintain ourselves?  Again, we plan for this disruption.  For 30 Days, we prep our customers, clients, students, families, whomever we serve.  For 30 Days we burn sick time, vacation, time without pay – we refuse to be participants to a society that does not respect our basic needs for living as a human being.

3.     WE COLLABORATE…We cannot do this alone.  The people who have a platform…we solicit them – we need their voice.  And if they refuse, we need to stop being consumers of whatever products they are offering.

4.     PROTEST – PETITIONS…we need one voice organized and consistent.  The message is BLACK LIVES MATTER. We demand respect, equity, equality in all areas of life…education, employment, healthcare, housing, and the opportunity to pursue happiness.

5.     WE REFRAIN FROM OUR LEARNED INSTINCTS TO FIGHT ONE ANOTHER – We cannot win together if anyone of us are tearing the mission apart.  Refrain from posting anything that supports the oppressor’s narrative.  REFRAIN FROM RESTATING THE OPPRESSORS NARRATIVE.  Think before you act, you speak, you post, you write, IS MY MESSAGE TO LIFT BLACK PEOPLE, OR AM I APART OF BLACK DESTRUCTION. This is really important in our mission.  REMEMBER in any training about saving a life – it is always emphasized that you must save yourself before you can help someone else.  So put your mask on first so you can breathe, and then help your fellow man/woman/child.

6.     Groom the next generation of leaders simultaneously.  EVERY HOUSEHOLD should be having a discussion about the civil unrest that is currently before us.  WE should be talking about when the Black Wall Street was burned down (looted and destroyed), by whom.  We should be talking about lynching historically and in its modern context.

We have a lot of work to do and a lengthy list is not going to be the tell all but a good sound start.  We need our Spiritual Leaders to take a stand in this.  There is no time in biblical text where prayer was not paired with action.  There was something we were required to do before, during, or after prayer.  It is not the lone answer.

I am a frustrated, enraged, Black Woman, who is ready to mobilize and take action.  I stand on the shoulders of my ancestors, whom are the wind beneath my wings, and I cannot stand by silently as more and more of my brothers die.  I understand that my heritage, my legacy, my family, the family of many of my friends are suffering and stand to be annihilated.  I am keenly aware that when I scream BLACK LiVES MATTER few stand beside me, but I know many hear my call.  Enough is Enough….We must mobilize into action.  We must stand in our resilience, recognize our strength, and take action.




With care,
AnalyzeThat

Thank you for Reading and Remember "If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, you must be the one to write it."~Toni Morrison

Black Lives Matter.

BLACK LIVES MATTER.

Some people will read this and will be instantly offended, others may accept it as rhetoric, and another may take in what is written.  I am a Black Woman.  Born into a family whose members have died for, lived through, and continues with their history of slavery.  I am three generations removed from picking cotton or keeping “Master’s” house.  I was born without the physical papers that bound some of my ancestor’s as property, but yet I live feeling confined by the systematic racism I encounter along this journey called life.  When the truth I know is that my oppressor is one confined.

I am a Black Woman.  Whose life is touched by her parents, sons, daughters, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, siblings and friends.   Each time I open an article, tune into social media, the news, music, my heart sinks.  Another hashtag, another Man/Woman/or Child murdered by the traps of racial oppression.  My consciousness keeps me enraged. I am reminded of my own concern for my children, for the children of my family and friends.  I am reminded that my community is likely the only community taught to remember their license number by heart.  My community has to be aware that each time those lights flash, we must not sweat, not stutter in fear, not shake, but to answer all the questions and to do so without making any move that makes the officer stopping us any more uncomfortable with our Black skin.

I become in raged by the rhetoric of victim blaming.  “What was he/she doing? I never experienced that. What were they wearing? Well, where were they? He/She should know better.” And if you are familiar with the people who do this, then you know, the list of doubt is endless - somehow the persons death is not more alarming then the reason “why they put themselves in that position

 What recently has me enraged are the ongoing discussions and reports that are flooding social media.  Some snazzy person placed Colin Kaepernick and George Floyd’s picture together to start the discussion and behold the trending point of views began on all the sites.  Those who are adamant about Kaepernick’s silent protest to take a knee for injustice and how it is dishonoring the flag, the nation, the country.  The very same country where my ancestors were shackled, owned by paper, forced to fight in wars in which many died, and those returning would still be made to use the back door, or would still be prevented from sitting at a counter, or drinking from any fountain.  My Black Men who died while their loved ones were still in bondage, suffering under the oppression of America. Yet, somehow this Black man’s knee to the ground is dismissive of the flag.  The video however, that snatches the last breaths of a Black Man who is forced to navigate the fear and terror of having a knee of a White Office in his neck, is patriotic – because the officer was doing his job.  The officer’s job I am to understand is to humiliate, dehumanize, exert power, and increase fear in a people who have suffered 400+ years under this patriotic view.

I am enraged because my Black Brothers and Sisters are looting and burning down property, and all people can say is why – why are they burning down their community.  Hopefully, some will not mind me answering this from my perspective. We are enraged, and some may appear to reflect feelings of hopeless and helpless – an awareness that we are abandoned by the society that continues to murder people in our image.  There is a weakening that happens but not a state of giving up.  Traffic stops for driving while Black that end with murder.  Why then burn down the community they live in…Community stores that profit from this very same community, WOULD rather turn their head from the injustice – remain silent participants in the death and destruction of the same community in which they make their profit.  We are burning down the community that we are not able to be entrepreneurial participants in.  The communities that keep them from obtaining the loans and support to start and maintain their own businesses for their own community. 

We are enraged that 400+ years later, some are awakening to understand that the only thing that has changed is the distribution of how oppression continues to be implemented.  Sure, there are no shackles, but with the help of the 13^th Amendment and racist policies ownership continues.  400+ years later, buildings have to be built with “affordable apartments” because the society still will not acknowledge the economical head-start slavery provided for those whom benefit from its wealth.  400+ years later there are still redline laws, most real estate agents will not even show properties on the market to Black Men/Women/Families regardless of their income.  400+ years later schools have been desegregated, but communities have not, continuing the divide that exists in education.  400+ years later the murder of innocent Black Men/Women/families continues, but today with the boom of technology we no longer waiting months to get the word out – it is instantaneous.  400+ years and we are still battling for a period in which BLACK HISTORY is acknowledged academically all year.  400+ years and we are seeking resolution for those textbooks that misrepresent Black History.  400+ years and the community remain in its struggle to undo the cycle of poverty, gain access to employment that makes it possible to sustain their needs and beyond.  400+ years and we are still trying to explain why people should not be threatened by our skin.  400+ years and we are still praying harder than ever to protect our Black community from exploitation.  400+ years and we still have to fight for our right to be Black and the right to be Black in America.

If you cannot see the pain, hurt, frustration, and rage that comes with these experiences, with this history, then I know you choose to be ignorant.  And you have the right to be wrong.  However, I implore those who recognize the systemic oppression to do something! Take action, do not stand or sit in silence.  Have these tough discussions with your family and friends be agents of change.  Boycott, petition, use your platform to bring awareness to the injustices suffered by the Black community daily and be active voices in the call for Justice and Equality.  We continue to forge ahead.  Knowing that we have overcome and continue to overcome the traps of language that seek to keep us paralyzed. With all this history of mistreatment, with all this history of bloodshed, my brothers, sisters, and I get up and we continue to go out to make a way for our families and selves.

To my Brothers and Sisters, I feel our pain, and I know how real it is.  It is hard to believe in the midst of pain, frustration, and anger that there is light…when we feel weak, a weakness in hope and a weakness of helplessness, do not be discouraged.  WE ARE WARRIORS.  There is light! You are a beacon of hope just for being who you are, Black man/woman/child.  The pain and hurt that we experience is real, and so is the opportunity to set the course, to take back our narratives, and to forge in the direction of change.  But it needs all of us!  It needs us to join together in this cry for justice reform.  We need changes in the criminal justice system, educational system, health care system, and the housing system.  Yes, it is a lot of work, and yes, it is going to take time, BUT I am confident with the resilience, the power, and charge that we have, it can and will be done.  Keep pushing!!

Black Lives Matter!  Our future is depending on you to put in the work we need.

With care,
AnalyzeThat

Thank you for Reading and Remember "If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, you must be the one to write it."~Toni Morrison