Juneteenth
Two Years ago my daughter got to choose our vacation spot.
She chose Tulsa, OK. Don't ask me why, she couldn't answer other than she saw a picture of it and it looked pretty.
So Tulsa, OK was the place we went. We arrived in June on the weekend that the Trump re-election was supposed to launch there. By pure magic it got switched to the next weekend. I thought it was pure magic for us, but I think it was pure magic for that community. You see in 1830 an entire legacy was built that would soon be deleted from history 100 years later only to resurface 100 years after that. The Resurrection of Black Wall Street.
The weekend that we happened to arrive there was the 100 year anniversary that Black Wall Street was burned to the ground and completely demolished in June of 1921. Eradicated from history. Black Wall Street was the first and only black thriving community, town known to history in the U.S. They had their own banks, hospital, grocery stores, schools, restaurants. They were thriving especially in a time where it was hard for that lineage of race to rise from oppression even after freedom. There were many immeasurable obstacles that they had to overcome to gain their rights and a livelihood that was sustaining.
To have overcome history and to have built a momentum that gave them what they had prayed and actively worked towards for 100s of years was devastating to say the least. And then to be erased from history. To never be an air of hope for their future kindling and to become the legacy for them to honorably proud of.
I write about this because I am passionate about it. I am passionate about the heart wrenching wrongness that happened to this profound community.
And I am passionate that for all that happened to them, they still overcame.
They came together. They leaned inward. They grew surmountable heights. They locked arms with each other. They mourned their grief together. The wailed together when their lives burnt to the ground in sheer desolation together. They held each other. They sang songs together. Songs of sadness, songs of hope, songs of healing, songs of prayer, songs of faith.
I pray that what I'm about to say doesn't sound racist, because that would break my heart. I just don't know how to word it otherwise.
When I think of the African Americans, the Spaniards, Asians, every other race that isn't white.
I think, feel, see.
Strength.
Resilience.
Family.
Support.
Determination.
Bravery.
Fearlessness.
Intelligence.
Awareness.
Community.
I see an entire race(s) that never gives up. They keep trying and fighting to get themselves and their families in a better place. And often from a completely different starting point than any white person.
When I get into my pity party, self doubt, woe is me, and victimhood mode I find my thoughts carry into the times of Martin Luther King Jr. and how hard his life was.
To stand up for something so HUGE that it put his life, his family, his friends, his neighbors lives into constant threat and jeopardy. EveryDay. Every. Day.
He never gave up because he saw something spiritually that was bigger than him. That was meant for him, for the same people whose lives he put in danger by standing behind his beliefs and his visions of his community of people being free, his neighbors and family being FREE.
His perseverance, his assertiveness created the tides of history that forever altered the way of beings.
When I think of him, the people who swim across the border so they can find work to feed their families, work that puts food on our tables, roofs on homes, landscapes our yards all because they have an inner fight for something better.
And they believe in it, with their whole heart.
I think of their spirit, their strength, their resilience, their fight and I am like damn, I ain't got nothing to complain about.
I need to muster up, roll up my sleeves, take a deep breathe, and get to work GIRL. Make those dreams that are bigger than you COME TO LIFE.
Because someone else needs you to create it, for they need what you have in order to change their life.
This goes to anyone in this community, but especially to anyone with a tanner shade of skin (that ages way better than white people I may add) one I am jealous, and two, I am sorry if you or anyone in your lineage has suffered ill treatment from racism. And I want you know that your lineage and potentially you have overcome mountains of hurdles and are wildly more capable, more than you recognize.
The strength and resilience that is born into your soul is untouchable. Go change the World. Make it BRIGHTER. We need you.
