In her words
One year ago
04/19/17 hmmm... where to start.
04/20/17 How did I get here you ask? Well it started with Pokemon Go...
04/21/17 Do you believe in Soulmates?
Bury me in the ocean with my ancestors that jumped from the ships, because they knew death was better than bondage.
-Erik Killmonger
This quote has been on my mind and heart ever since I watched the film two months ago. I've had a lot of thoughts on it but I've kept them silent because the last thing this world needs is another white voice commenting on the black experience and perspective. But this tiny secret site is my space and I feel safe to voice my thoughts here, not in public, not over top of anyone else but here quietly.
Everyone I've talked to about this film says this quote has been so powerful to them that it moves them and impacted them deeply...but I disagree with this character's philosophy. I know it isn't fair for the white man to disagree knowing that the ancestors who didn't jump had to face over 500 years of slavery and an untold more amount of racism in this country continuing today and into the future however many more centuries.
But those people who jumped from the ships are not this character's ancestors...their story, their lineage, their genealogy ended there. They are no ones ancestors. I don't fault them for jumping, given the situation I can't say for certain I wouldn't jump myself. But the idea of jumping from the ship is very much in line with this character's philosophy and world view.
But what about the brave souls who arrived in America? What about those who kept hope alive? What about those who watched their children torn from their arms and sold, never to be seen again? What about those women, wives, daughters, sisters, aunts and mothers raped and chose to trudge on? Those who did not jump, those who did not commit suicide. Those brave humans viewed by everyone and everything their current ruling culture as nothing more than property and could never been anything more. Those brave men and women who chose to love despite knowing their children would be sold. Chose to love despite knowing their spouse may be whipped, traded, hanged. Chose to live despite day in and day out pain, agony, degradation, hatred, and nothing but the same to look forward to tomorrow...
Those brave men and women, those are the character's ancestors. They kept the hope alive until April 12, 1861 when the country tore itself in two over the freedom of all people. 2% of the entire population of the country died during that civil war, an estimated 620,000 men. More American lives were lost in that war than in world war 1, 2, and the revolutionary war combined. But Hope won out and those ancestors were "free" after 246 years since the first 19 slaves where brought to Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. And still those ancestors hoped. They hoped as their family names were changed, they hoped as their heritage, culture, customs, and identity where stripped from them never to be traced or known again. But it would be another 100 years of convict leasing, peonage, sharecropping and Jim Crow laws before the Civil Rights Act of 1964. But in another 44 years the first black president would be elected to run that very same country.
If every enslaved man and woman had jumped from those ships, thinking death was better than bondage we would have never had Barack Obama, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Thurgood Marshall, Harriet Tubman, Bessie Coleman, Alvin Ailey, Miles Davis, Matthew Henson, Rosa Parks, Ruby Bridges, Mae Jemison, Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Jessye Norman, Ida Wells, Malcolm X, Fannie Lou Hamer, Jesse Owens, Michael B. Jordan and many many other incredible Americas that have shaped this country, and this world for the better.
When I think of the path of the Black America my mind can't help but compare it to the original native nations of America before the European colonizers infected and plagued this land with disease, war, lies, pollution, and hatred. How many cultures, how many nations, how many people groups wiped from the planet never to breathe, write, sing, taste, or love again. Silenced by the white devils that still run this country today, I among them. Those who managed to survive are wedged into reservations where systemic poverty and injustice are the norm.
We have miles to go as a country, as a planet. We have miles to go, centuries. But how I pray and hope for an afterlife how I pray and hope those countless lives enslaved and murdered in those southern cotton plantations are resting somewhere and if only...how my deepest heart groans for this, if only they could see what their children have become. If only they could see the battles they have won the freedom and the power they have gained...miles to go indeed but there is no greater feat in human history than the struggle and the victory of the African America. To go from hopeless hell of shackles against the haul of wooden slaves ships to the mountain top of leading the very country whose laws were shaped specifically to intentionally keep black people pinned down.
How I pray Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. could see what his love has done, what his dream has become.
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
Yolanda Renee King - I have a dream ... enough is enough
This speech brings me to tears. My soul groans for there to be an after life so that Martin could know his granddaughter, that Martin could see his 9 year old granddaughter dream and lead this next generation.
Had her ancestors jumped from the ships thinking death was better than bondage...what a cruel dark world we would live in today. What a hopelessly evil world it would be and what a magnificently beautiful, diverse, and culturally rich place we have because of those who survived, those who kept on, those who hoped in an absolutely hopeless situation. Black American citizens are still gunned down in their own communities and streets by those who swore to protect and serve them and their surviving families are still receiving no justice from the courts of their own country who swore to blindly serve justice. Black athletes are still being told to shut up and dribble when they speak out about racial inequality. Black athletes are still being denied positions on a team because they nonviolently, peacefully, take a knee, sports are being boycotted because the players are using their platform to attempt to shape a better world for their children. We have miles to go but we will get there. We will.
When we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring
from every city and every hamlet, from every state and
every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all
of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and
Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join
hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual,
"Free at last, Free at last, Great God almighty, "we are
free at last."
-Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Enneagram Type 2 The Helper
I know exactly how the rule goes:
put my mask on first.
No, i don’t want to talk about myself-
tell me where it hurts.
I just want to build you up, build you up
’til you’re good as new
and maybe one day i will get around to fixing myself too.
Two - Sleeping At Last
One year ago
04/19/17 hmmm... where to start.
04/20/17 How did I get here you ask? Well it started with Pokemon Go...
04/21/17 Do you believe in Soulmates?
Bury me in the ocean with my ancestors that jumped from the ships, because they knew death was better than bondage.
-Erik Killmonger
This quote has been on my mind and heart ever since I watched the film two months ago. I've had a lot of thoughts on it but I've kept them silent because the last thing this world needs is another white voice commenting on the black experience and perspective. But this tiny secret site is my space and I feel safe to voice my thoughts here, not in public, not over top of anyone else but here quietly.
Everyone I've talked to about this film says this quote has been so powerful to them that it moves them and impacted them deeply...but I disagree with this character's philosophy. I know it isn't fair for the white man to disagree knowing that the ancestors who didn't jump had to face over 500 years of slavery and an untold more amount of racism in this country continuing today and into the future however many more centuries.
But those people who jumped from the ships are not this character's ancestors...their story, their lineage, their genealogy ended there. They are no ones ancestors. I don't fault them for jumping, given the situation I can't say for certain I wouldn't jump myself. But the idea of jumping from the ship is very much in line with this character's philosophy and world view.
But what about the brave souls who arrived in America? What about those who kept hope alive? What about those who watched their children torn from their arms and sold, never to be seen again? What about those women, wives, daughters, sisters, aunts and mothers raped and chose to trudge on? Those who did not jump, those who did not commit suicide. Those brave humans viewed by everyone and everything their current ruling culture as nothing more than property and could never been anything more. Those brave men and women who chose to love despite knowing their children would be sold. Chose to love despite knowing their spouse may be whipped, traded, hanged. Chose to live despite day in and day out pain, agony, degradation, hatred, and nothing but the same to look forward to tomorrow...
Those brave men and women, those are the character's ancestors. They kept the hope alive until April 12, 1861 when the country tore itself in two over the freedom of all people. 2% of the entire population of the country died during that civil war, an estimated 620,000 men. More American lives were lost in that war than in world war 1, 2, and the revolutionary war combined. But Hope won out and those ancestors were "free" after 246 years since the first 19 slaves where brought to Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. And still those ancestors hoped. They hoped as their family names were changed, they hoped as their heritage, culture, customs, and identity where stripped from them never to be traced or known again. But it would be another 100 years of convict leasing, peonage, sharecropping and Jim Crow laws before the Civil Rights Act of 1964. But in another 44 years the first black president would be elected to run that very same country.
If every enslaved man and woman had jumped from those ships, thinking death was better than bondage we would have never had Barack Obama, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Thurgood Marshall, Harriet Tubman, Bessie Coleman, Alvin Ailey, Miles Davis, Matthew Henson, Rosa Parks, Ruby Bridges, Mae Jemison, Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Jessye Norman, Ida Wells, Malcolm X, Fannie Lou Hamer, Jesse Owens, Michael B. Jordan and many many other incredible Americas that have shaped this country, and this world for the better.
When I think of the path of the Black America my mind can't help but compare it to the original native nations of America before the European colonizers infected and plagued this land with disease, war, lies, pollution, and hatred. How many cultures, how many nations, how many people groups wiped from the planet never to breathe, write, sing, taste, or love again. Silenced by the white devils that still run this country today, I among them. Those who managed to survive are wedged into reservations where systemic poverty and injustice are the norm.
We have miles to go as a country, as a planet. We have miles to go, centuries. But how I pray and hope for an afterlife how I pray and hope those countless lives enslaved and murdered in those southern cotton plantations are resting somewhere and if only...how my deepest heart groans for this, if only they could see what their children have become. If only they could see the battles they have won the freedom and the power they have gained...miles to go indeed but there is no greater feat in human history than the struggle and the victory of the African America. To go from hopeless hell of shackles against the haul of wooden slaves ships to the mountain top of leading the very country whose laws were shaped specifically to intentionally keep black people pinned down.
How I pray Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. could see what his love has done, what his dream has become.
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
Yolanda Renee King - I have a dream ... enough is enough
This speech brings me to tears. My soul groans for there to be an after life so that Martin could know his granddaughter, that Martin could see his 9 year old granddaughter dream and lead this next generation.
Had her ancestors jumped from the ships thinking death was better than bondage...what a cruel dark world we would live in today. What a hopelessly evil world it would be and what a magnificently beautiful, diverse, and culturally rich place we have because of those who survived, those who kept on, those who hoped in an absolutely hopeless situation. Black American citizens are still gunned down in their own communities and streets by those who swore to protect and serve them and their surviving families are still receiving no justice from the courts of their own country who swore to blindly serve justice. Black athletes are still being told to shut up and dribble when they speak out about racial inequality. Black athletes are still being denied positions on a team because they nonviolently, peacefully, take a knee, sports are being boycotted because the players are using their platform to attempt to shape a better world for their children. We have miles to go but we will get there. We will.
When we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring
from every city and every hamlet, from every state and
every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all
of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and
Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join
hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual,
"Free at last, Free at last, Great God almighty, "we are
free at last."
-Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Enneagram Type 2 The Helper
I know exactly how the rule goes:
put my mask on first.
No, i don’t want to talk about myself-
tell me where it hurts.
I just want to build you up, build you up
’til you’re good as new
and maybe one day i will get around to fixing myself too.
Two - Sleeping At Last