"Here," she said, "in this here place, we flesh; flesh that weeps, laughs; flesh that dances on bare feet in grass. Love it. Love it hard. Yonder they do not love your flesh. They despise it. They don't love your eyes; they'd just as soon pick em out. No more do they love the skin on your back. Yonder they flay it. And O my people they do not love your hands. Those they only use, tie, bind, chop off and leave empty. Love your hands! Love them. Raise them up and kiss them. Touch others with them, pat them together, stroke them on your face 'cause they don't love that either. You got to love it, you! And no, they ain't in love with your mouth. Younder, out there, they will see it broken and break it again. What you say out of it they will not heed. What you scream from it they do not hear. What you put into it to nourish your body they will snatch away and give you leavins instead. No, they don't love your mouth. You got to love it. This is flesh I'm talking about here. Flesh that needs to be loved. Feet that need to rest and to dance; backs that need support; shoulders that need arms, strong arms I'm telling you. And O my people, out yonder, hear me, they do not love your neck unnoosed and straight. So love your neck; put a hand on it, grace it, stroke it and hold it up. And all your inside parts that they'd just as soon slop for hogs, you got to love them. The dark, dark liver love it, love it, and the beat and beating heart, love that too. More than eyes or feet. More than lungs that have yet to draw free air. More than your life-holding womb and your life-giving private parts, hear me now, love your heart. For this is the prize."
-Toni Morrison, Beloved
Sitting here in the silence of the morning, the peace of the day reading this magnificent Nobel prize winning novel my heart is overwhelmed and my eyes begin to water.
Yonder
Yonder they don't love you
Yonder they do not love your hands, your eyes, your mouth, your heart
Yonder
I've spent the past two weeks setting up my kindergarten classroom at Africentric. My mind has been consumed with this place. This school specific and intentionally for children in Columbus who are black. A place where they can hear to love their flesh and love it hard. They are told to love their eyes, to love their skin, love their hands, their face, their mouth, their neck, their liver, and to love their heart more than anything for that is the prize.
I'm sitting here completely emotional thinking about those children those beautiful valued and wonderful black children in our country today who are being told yonder that their skin is ugly, their hair needs straightened, and their lives don't matter.
Africentric is such a special place. I love that my city has a place to speak the message of Toni Morrison's character. Love yourself and love it hard because outside of this school you may hear a different message. That message is wrong, it is not the one you should listen to.
Doll test - The effects of racism on children
Research has proven there is a message being sent yonder and the children of America, both black and white, have received this message. Research has proven it and I have experienced it myself when I had a 5 year old preschool girl tell me she wished her skin looked like mine. One of the most beautiful, smart, and well behaved students I ever had while drawing together she told me she did not like her skin.
This is why Africentric is such a beautiful place. This is why it is so important.
Friday night White Nationalists March on University of Virginia This past Friday...2017 this message is still being sent.
This coming a week a man wrote a 10-Page Anti-Diversity screed circulating internally at Google saying women are underrepresented in tech not because they face bias and discrimination in the workplace, but because of inherent psychological differences between men and women.
Children, students, black students need to hear the message that they are loved and capable. Little girls in our schools and communities need to hear they are equally capable and are not psychologically disadvantaged because of their biology.
I wrote the above section yesterday morning before the protests turned into terrorist attacks and people were killed in Charlottesville. Yesterday has given me such a heavy heart. Why doesn't the president of our country call this a domestic terrorist attack? Why are these people shouting white lives matter. What is happening in my life time? What will happen next?
92 years and 4 days ago between 25,000 and 400,000 Ku Klux Klan members marched to show support for the KKK and demand immigration restrictions based on race and nation of origin.
156 years ago Virginia was the 8th state to secede from the United States.
Today the president of the county is demanding immigration restrictions and the KKK is marching in Virginia.
How far we have to go.
How embarrassing if I am a grandparent I will be able to give first hand accounts of domestic terrorists like the KKK and Nazis demonstrating in America. It always felt like a thing of black and white history book pages and stories from my grandparents. Things of the past, but here I sit in 2017 wondering if my grandchildren will be able to give first hand accounts of these demonstrations to their grandchildren and how very sad of a thought that is but I can't help but wonder if my grandparents had hoped I'd never be able to say it myself.
My Grandfather's Grandfather could have been alive during the civil war.
My Grandchild's grandchild could be born around 2115 nearly 250 years since my grandfather's grandfather. Will there still be first hand accounts? Will some people still believe some people are less than they are because of the pigment melanin of their skin? Is that even possible to believe such a thing more than 250 years since the civil war...It can't be possible.
It can't.
...on a different topic (much more lighthearted) This past week I think I saw Tempestt every day sans 1. She's an incredible woman. The only bad part about spending time with her is that there never seems to be enough. Her smile and those brown eyes sometimes I get lost in them. Sometimes simply walking beside her I'm caught off guard by her natural beauty and I simply exhale a "mhmm" my insides expressing an overflow of contentment in the whole situation, the flowers, the sky, the uneven brick sidewalks, the sun on my skin, this amazing woman beside me, it's more than my heart can handle and thus with my body having no known way to process this excess out comes this very satisfied 'mhmm' It's the only way my body can attempt to bottle the moment. Physically there is no like button, no internal social media post by which to forever bring back these moments and so 'mhmm' spills out but it's so much more than that.
I haven't even kissed this woman. I've known she's existed for over a year I've messaged her for months and I've seen her in person maybe a dozen times. None of it nearly enough. Goodness her voice and that laugh it's very good. Very.
Exactly like the future of this country and the world, I wonder what the future hold for us.
How will this story be told?
2017 may be the greatest year of my life so far. :)
Jesse Ruben - This Is Why I Need You
-Toni Morrison, Beloved
Sitting here in the silence of the morning, the peace of the day reading this magnificent Nobel prize winning novel my heart is overwhelmed and my eyes begin to water.
Yonder
Yonder they don't love you
Yonder they do not love your hands, your eyes, your mouth, your heart
Yonder
I've spent the past two weeks setting up my kindergarten classroom at Africentric. My mind has been consumed with this place. This school specific and intentionally for children in Columbus who are black. A place where they can hear to love their flesh and love it hard. They are told to love their eyes, to love their skin, love their hands, their face, their mouth, their neck, their liver, and to love their heart more than anything for that is the prize.
I'm sitting here completely emotional thinking about those children those beautiful valued and wonderful black children in our country today who are being told yonder that their skin is ugly, their hair needs straightened, and their lives don't matter.
Africentric is such a special place. I love that my city has a place to speak the message of Toni Morrison's character. Love yourself and love it hard because outside of this school you may hear a different message. That message is wrong, it is not the one you should listen to.
Doll test - The effects of racism on children
Research has proven there is a message being sent yonder and the children of America, both black and white, have received this message. Research has proven it and I have experienced it myself when I had a 5 year old preschool girl tell me she wished her skin looked like mine. One of the most beautiful, smart, and well behaved students I ever had while drawing together she told me she did not like her skin.
This is why Africentric is such a beautiful place. This is why it is so important.
Friday night White Nationalists March on University of Virginia This past Friday...2017 this message is still being sent.
This coming a week a man wrote a 10-Page Anti-Diversity screed circulating internally at Google saying women are underrepresented in tech not because they face bias and discrimination in the workplace, but because of inherent psychological differences between men and women.
Children, students, black students need to hear the message that they are loved and capable. Little girls in our schools and communities need to hear they are equally capable and are not psychologically disadvantaged because of their biology.
I wrote the above section yesterday morning before the protests turned into terrorist attacks and people were killed in Charlottesville. Yesterday has given me such a heavy heart. Why doesn't the president of our country call this a domestic terrorist attack? Why are these people shouting white lives matter. What is happening in my life time? What will happen next?
92 years and 4 days ago between 25,000 and 400,000 Ku Klux Klan members marched to show support for the KKK and demand immigration restrictions based on race and nation of origin.
156 years ago Virginia was the 8th state to secede from the United States.
Today the president of the county is demanding immigration restrictions and the KKK is marching in Virginia.
How far we have to go.
How embarrassing if I am a grandparent I will be able to give first hand accounts of domestic terrorists like the KKK and Nazis demonstrating in America. It always felt like a thing of black and white history book pages and stories from my grandparents. Things of the past, but here I sit in 2017 wondering if my grandchildren will be able to give first hand accounts of these demonstrations to their grandchildren and how very sad of a thought that is but I can't help but wonder if my grandparents had hoped I'd never be able to say it myself.
My Grandfather's Grandfather could have been alive during the civil war.
My Grandchild's grandchild could be born around 2115 nearly 250 years since my grandfather's grandfather. Will there still be first hand accounts? Will some people still believe some people are less than they are because of the pigment melanin of their skin? Is that even possible to believe such a thing more than 250 years since the civil war...It can't be possible.
It can't.
...on a different topic (much more lighthearted) This past week I think I saw Tempestt every day sans 1. She's an incredible woman. The only bad part about spending time with her is that there never seems to be enough. Her smile and those brown eyes sometimes I get lost in them. Sometimes simply walking beside her I'm caught off guard by her natural beauty and I simply exhale a "mhmm" my insides expressing an overflow of contentment in the whole situation, the flowers, the sky, the uneven brick sidewalks, the sun on my skin, this amazing woman beside me, it's more than my heart can handle and thus with my body having no known way to process this excess out comes this very satisfied 'mhmm' It's the only way my body can attempt to bottle the moment. Physically there is no like button, no internal social media post by which to forever bring back these moments and so 'mhmm' spills out but it's so much more than that.
I haven't even kissed this woman. I've known she's existed for over a year I've messaged her for months and I've seen her in person maybe a dozen times. None of it nearly enough. Goodness her voice and that laugh it's very good. Very.
Exactly like the future of this country and the world, I wonder what the future hold for us.
How will this story be told?
2017 may be the greatest year of my life so far. :)
Jesse Ruben - This Is Why I Need You