Happy #Nia! Nia (Purpose): To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness. The first half of that is fairly straightforward. It took me marrying an African to get the last half of that sentence. We as a people as a whole are driven by expectations. And we always seem to be falling short. Thugs.... Well, whatd he do?... My son made 28 today... Music videos, movies, tv cop shows - they dont seem to emphasize the non-gun-toting innocent Black man, do they? Then theres the stereotypical Black womans view of the Black man -which is not shared by the women in my life, but again, I too am bombarded by pop culture. At best, growing up, my hopes for my Black culture was a goal, not a restoration. At Kwanzaa I didnt feel connected to a culture which seemed like a generalization of a continent - not even a nation, and certainly more than one culture. But I missed the point. When I married Arthur, and it really took many years after our marriage to understand this, I married into a successful family with a long history of service and deep cultural identity. Arthur comes from a place that was very successful during his childhood. His education was far superior to mine as a child. His mother and father hosted State dinners for his country. There is a difference. There is a difference between we as African Americans striving for a goal weve never accomplished, and connecting to other successful cultures without our particular racial bias to access readily available mentors. There are many successful people who have dark skin in this world who know what it is to be President, or run million dollar companies, or feed the poor, or heal the sick, or build bridges and buildings, or teach children. We are inherently capable - just as much as anybody else - and it makes a difference to know it can be, has been, and is being done. Because here in the US we are told every day in every way that when we fall short it could never be done. And deep in our hearts, after hundreds of years of oppression, theres a part of us for many of us, including myself until I got this, that wonders if its true.
Posted on: Tue, 30 Dec 2014 16:27:12 +0000
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