Committing myself to the stillness within me each day is difficult, but it is necessary to ease my health challenges. Today my thoughts are pulled away from the stillness to Sandra Bland.
We may never know what happened even with the ongoing investigations, but one thing I do believe is that someone else other than Sandy should be held accountable.
My take on Sandy is that she lives in many of us. I see a young lady who seemed to be going in a positive direction with self determination and purpose. A road that many of her age could model. She was about change in her life as well as others.
As a young woman many years ago, I traveled to Texas for the first time and I saw the signs" For Colored Only." We had friends who sheltered us from this blatant segregation. What I didn't know was that we had been to a drive Inn theater that had this sign at the entrance, but I didn't notice it until that night! I said to my friend, "We are not going in there, turn the car around." I was annoyed, Why didn't I see that sign before? These ugly signs have gone, but unfortunately the embedded roots are sometimes invisible in our minds as well as others.
I had been accustomed to discrimination all my life in New Jersey: segregated schools, sitting upstairs in the theaters stretched along Broadway and more. We lived in a mixed neighborhood, but when we ventured into some white sections "Go home nigger" was hurled at us and we moved swiftly through these paths before dark.
Sandy's brief life struck a chord within me. What if many of our young people were as mindful as Sandy. Listen to her voice, follow her tracks. A path for many that is filled with noise and roadblocks facilitated and manipulated by the media.
It is difficult to know what our ancestors are telling us through Sandy. For me, it is the need to focus on her positive attributes so that we can fight the violence by law enforcement in the halls of justice. Also, much can be done to elevate our young people from the confusing paths of self deception that lead them down paths of self hatred and no return. There are organizations out there to join and push the movement through the halls of justice to the streets lined with takers who have sucked the blood of our children. Exploitation of our people by any color should be condemned.
Sandy wasn't perfect, because there are no perfect lives, but her videos speak messages that can benefit all of us. She was not grooving to "nigga this" and "nigga that." Sandy was grooving to "Say it loud I'm black and proud." She was a millennial who Lorraine Hansberry, our talented play writer would call "young, gifted and black."
Ms. Hansberry's voice is timeless: "I speak to you because I can think of no more dynamic combination than to be young, gifted and black. ..Look at the work that awaits you!... write about the world as it is, and what you think it ought to be and must be -if there is to be a world … Write about our people - tell their story. You have something glorious to draw on begging for your attention. Don't pass it up. Use it… This Nation needs your gifts. Perfect them!"
I remind myself as well as others that healing is a process not a prescription, each person's experiences in the journey will differ, but the commonalities will be the same; new horizons to empower ourselves as well as the next generation. Be blessed with the drumbeats of our ancestors as we hasten and strengthen our footsteps.
We may never know what happened even with the ongoing investigations, but one thing I do believe is that someone else other than Sandy should be held accountable.
My take on Sandy is that she lives in many of us. I see a young lady who seemed to be going in a positive direction with self determination and purpose. A road that many of her age could model. She was about change in her life as well as others.
As a young woman many years ago, I traveled to Texas for the first time and I saw the signs" For Colored Only." We had friends who sheltered us from this blatant segregation. What I didn't know was that we had been to a drive Inn theater that had this sign at the entrance, but I didn't notice it until that night! I said to my friend, "We are not going in there, turn the car around." I was annoyed, Why didn't I see that sign before? These ugly signs have gone, but unfortunately the embedded roots are sometimes invisible in our minds as well as others.
I had been accustomed to discrimination all my life in New Jersey: segregated schools, sitting upstairs in the theaters stretched along Broadway and more. We lived in a mixed neighborhood, but when we ventured into some white sections "Go home nigger" was hurled at us and we moved swiftly through these paths before dark.
Sandy's brief life struck a chord within me. What if many of our young people were as mindful as Sandy. Listen to her voice, follow her tracks. A path for many that is filled with noise and roadblocks facilitated and manipulated by the media.
It is difficult to know what our ancestors are telling us through Sandy. For me, it is the need to focus on her positive attributes so that we can fight the violence by law enforcement in the halls of justice. Also, much can be done to elevate our young people from the confusing paths of self deception that lead them down paths of self hatred and no return. There are organizations out there to join and push the movement through the halls of justice to the streets lined with takers who have sucked the blood of our children. Exploitation of our people by any color should be condemned.
Sandy wasn't perfect, because there are no perfect lives, but her videos speak messages that can benefit all of us. She was not grooving to "nigga this" and "nigga that." Sandy was grooving to "Say it loud I'm black and proud." She was a millennial who Lorraine Hansberry, our talented play writer would call "young, gifted and black."
Ms. Hansberry's voice is timeless: "I speak to you because I can think of no more dynamic combination than to be young, gifted and black. ..Look at the work that awaits you!... write about the world as it is, and what you think it ought to be and must be -if there is to be a world … Write about our people - tell their story. You have something glorious to draw on begging for your attention. Don't pass it up. Use it… This Nation needs your gifts. Perfect them!"
I remind myself as well as others that healing is a process not a prescription, each person's experiences in the journey will differ, but the commonalities will be the same; new horizons to empower ourselves as well as the next generation. Be blessed with the drumbeats of our ancestors as we hasten and strengthen our footsteps.
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