We have just pasted the remnants of the twenty-eight day celebration of our history we were given, and as the status quo for the month went, we were inundated with the memes, messages, and photos of all the oppression our ancestors faced, mixed in with all our great inventions and ‘firsts’. This year, we are also on the sore heels of two historic gubernatorial elections in Florida and Georgia, where two of the candidates who threatened to take office were Andrew Gillum and Stacey Abrams, respectively. The historic moment brought living legend, Oprah, to Georgia where she spoke on behalf of Abrams and called for African Americans in the state to flood the polls in record numbers to support a candidate that looked like us. In her speech, she refers to our ancestors who didn’t have the right to vote and how we should be ‘honoring our legacy’ by voting. The story she tells of Otis Moss Sr. having to walk eighteen miles to three different precincts in an effort to vote, which, spoiler alert, did not happen for Mr. Moss that day. As she chided non-voters for ‘disrespecting their legacy’, it occurred to me, ‘what if our ancestors were fighting the wrong damn fight?’ and here we are, generations later, just blindly following the wrong program? 

            Everyone knows our vile and racist history in this country that has made it necessary for our ancestors to fight to even be treated as human beings. That history began with the arrival of our ancestors on these shores, most unwillingly, notwithstanding those of us who were already here or came of our own volition, being held as subhuman captives by a race who felt themselves superior. The same racism and sentiment that created and fueled the institution of slavery for hundreds of years, and prevailed among the creators of our democracy and the writers of our Constitution is still embedded in the fabric of our society today and is what our ancestors have been fighting against for generations. Our predominant way of fighting back against being lynched, burned, excluded and overall terrorized, was to protest, march and sit-in. I’m almost positive that the Jesus they gave us had a lot to do with the ‘turn the other cheek’ rhetoric that prevented us from standing together and beating the shit out of those who threw the first lick. Maybe the creation of militia organizations to defend our communities against the heinous acts of brutality still being launched against us currently was the fight our ancestors were supposed to have. Oprah mentions having the ‘blood of those who were suppressed and oppressed at the pole seeping into her DNA’ and not letting their sacrifice be in vain. And I ask, ‘what about the blood of our ancestors who fought for their freedom? What about the blood of our ancestors who refused to succumb to slavery? What about the blood of Nat Turner? Who has the blood of Denmark Vessey and Toussant-Louverture? The blood of Gasper Yanga? That is the blood I feel pulsing through my veins as I wonder if we are respecting their legacy by fighting so hard to be included in a society that obvious doesn’t want us to be? I think our ancestors who fought to be free, who would have rather died than acquiesce to a system that didn’t was built to destroy them are turning over in their graves as they watch what our artificial ‘fight’ has become. We still find it necessary to tell the world ‘Black lives matter’ without showing the consequence for continuing to take those lives. 

            I don’t have any solutions, just questions about our mock progress and an idealistic view that we could have done some shit differently in the past that would have possibly created a better today and a brighter tomorrow. I think it’s past time to reframe our constant desire to want to be included in this world that continues to exclude and disrespect us and realize we are enough for us. The white man’s ice isn’t colder, we don’t need their pat on the back and we can be our own problem-solvers and protectors. If we don’t stand up for ourselves, we can’t expect anyone else to. 

                      

  Less of this

            More of this

And to sum it up…