So many shifts have been happening this year. I’ve been feeling this for quite a while, even wrote an article about it a few months back. But I’ve also been seeing some pushback on this.
“Nothing has changed”
“Same shit different day”
…and the like.
And here’s where you and I will both be doing some deep reflection on this with a simple question: Are we active participants?
Before we get defensive here, let me cook.
Over the past few months, we’ve been witnessing an uptick in attacks within and towards the Black diaspora. Black children are being targeted. Our constitutional rights are diminishing. Voting rights are being eradicated. If that isn’t enough, we’re being policed on our appearance from our own people with the whole bonnets and du rag debacle. Can we catch a break, here?
I would argue that this has been happening consistently over the past 400 years. And yet, we still found a way to progress collectively no matter how many times they’ve attempted to snatch it away from us.
At the worst of times, we still found a way to come together, fight, and build. From the Emancipation to now, our people have made significant impacts to Black history during the worst of times. Think of Black Wall Street, Oscarville, and the Harlem Renaissance for example. While we were being hunted and targeted to no end, we still found a way to build and rebuild. That type of strength and tenacity is unmatched.
Which leads to my point.
We can sit back and allow things to remain the same, complain, lose hope, and raw dog life to no end. We can pull the covers over our head and pray the monsters just go away. Totally within your right.
Or, we can continue to fight and build as the Ancestors have when they’ve arguably had it much worse.
The first thing that comes to mind for me is active community participation. Say what you want about voting, but there was a time when Black folks had to pay to vote. Even during Jim Crow, our people organized and showed up.
As for me, part of Ancestral veneration means continuing their fight. Voting across all levels. Caring for my elders as the living connection to my Ancestors. I can’t sit here and hope and wish for change when I’m not meeting Spirit halfway. We must be active, here in some way.
There’s also a gang of amazing writers on this platform that create amazing bodies of work to be honored for years to come. Spiritualists from different ATR’s documenting and providing services that honor the Spirits who have carried us since the beginning. Crazy talented artists capturing our joy to be visible for our descendants so they see our joy in the midst of trials and tribulations.
All of these things hold value in our liberation.
So I ask again, how are we actively participating in our progression and advancements as Black Americans? If you aren’t feeling the shift, I ask you, how are you contributing? Spirit is an ally to us in this human experience, so how are we meeting this energy halfway? What can we change that is within our power to do so?
We are so much stronger together. History has proven this to be true. My greatest prayer and manifestation is that we leave our mark the way the Ancestors left theirs. We put another notch in the belt to show that even when we were being targeted, we carried on anyway. We’ve unpacked all the bags, we’ve analyzed, we’ve examined our struggles from every angle. The torch has been passed to us, we must press forward together. Bonnets, du rags, and all. Hope this helps.
With love,
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