Surprising, disappointing, exuberant, demoralizing, even tragic are all words that could be applied to describe this year.
2024 has been a year. This seems like such a colossal understatement.
Surprising, disappointing, exuberant, demoralizing, and even tragic are all words that could be applied to describe this year. Collectively as a culture, we have shared experiences of joy and hope for the future as well as anger and dread for what may lie ahead. As we journey together into 2025, let’s reflect on what we have witnessed and prepare for what is to come.
Let’s look at the challenges ahead. Our history is being erased from public education and from libraries across the country, affecting the education of our most vulnerable young minds. Affirmative Action, once a great tool for leveling the playing field not just for us but all underrepresented groups, has been struck down by the courts, and we are seeing our enrollment at the most prestigious institutions of higher learning decline. DEI efforts throughout corporate America are now being disavowed and dismantled. Voting rights and voter access are still not protected and are increasingly vulnerable to partisan gerrymandering and restrictive laws that dilute or altogether dismiss our votes. Scapegoating and vilification of our LGBTQIA brothers and sisters is at an all-time high both inside and outside of our community. Women’s health in general is under attack, and as always, this has a particularly devastating effect on Black women.
It sounds daunting, doesn’t it? But let’s take a breath and remember that we have been here before. Our honored ancestors who survived slavery and witnessed Reconstruction Era advances must have felt this way when those advances disappeared and “Jim Crow” rose in its place. Our forbears had to have experienced what we feel now when they saw civil and voting rights laws enacted on the one hand and our leaders and heroes assassinated and martyred on the other. What did they do? ENDURE. They survived, and now we must suit up and do the same.
UNITY will be our main protection as we face these challenges to our right and ability to fully participate in and benefit from our citizenship in this country. If we do not unify our community, if we fail to embrace and include all of our brothers and sisters in this struggle, we will be guilty of participating in and enabling our own oppression.
Stand Together or Fall Apart
We must resist allowing internal divisions to distract us from our true enemy. Straight, Gay, Trans, Male or Female, Old or Young, American or born elsewhere in the Diaspora, we are all one. Our shared history of oppression and survival undoubtedly makes us all BLACK. In the words of Q-Tip, “Black is Black.”
Let us support only those institutions, structures, and businesses within our community that support the ULTIMATE GOAL of unifying all of our people. We must resist the voices and movements that seek to divide us one from another because the only thing that comes after division is conquest. We need only look to history for confirmation of this fact. Scapegoating and demonizing one another is the road to defeat, and disagreement doesn’t make us enemies; it makes us human.
As a collective, we have to find a way to protect and assist our mothers, daughters, sisters, and “sistah” friends. We cannot leave them at the mercy of state legislatures and a healthcare system that has always treated them as less and now has the force of law in many states to ignore their well-being and allow them to die.
Conservative or Progressive, come my brothers and sisters and let us reason together. For those who have recently discovered that a place at THEIR table was never really prepared for you, come on home; there is room at our own table as there has always been. Use your talent and voice to strengthen our collective.
Our solutions must be those that can be fostered and sustained within our culture. Supporting education, commerce, charity, politics, and justice in our communities must be our first, second, and third priorities. Let us support one another so that a future for our children and our culture can be assured.
Oppression Is Not Just An American Thing
Being Black is not just an American thing. Yes, it has been a designation of Black American identity; however, as any racist will tell you, that designation does not end there. Blackness is defined more by our shared history of oppression, exploitation, and dehumanization as well as our survival throughout the diaspora. Whether you embrace the term Black or not, know that the legacy of racist abuse has harmed us all, and the struggle against those arrayed against us is a unifying force that transcends national boundaries.
We Know Our Enemy But Do We Know Our Friends?
Let us make it common practice to evaluate the motivations of all who have access to our resources and who work within our community. Not everyone who looks like us is with us. We cannot afford to waste our energy fighting for those who are unwilling to fight for themselves or who fail to realize that their fate is intrinsically tied to that of their brother and sister.
When dealing with other communities of color, we must recognize when priorities do not align. Allyship must be reciprocal; otherwise, it is simply another form of exploitation. If we find that our support is not mutual, then we must prioritize the well-being of our own.
Inspire and Prepare
Let’s mentor and inspire our young activists and heroes. It is time for new movements and new initiatives and to allow new leaders to rise up. We must show the young that apathy and disengagement are traps set by oppressors to destroy future generations yet to be born. Our actions now determine their fight tomorrow. What kind of culture and world will we hand to them?
2025 is upon us. What part will you play as we face the challenges ahead? Is your resolve steadfast? Are your strategies clear? Are you rooted in self-serving complacency or in collective advancement? The time is now to take you stand.
The Struggle Continues . . .
Surprising, disappointing, exuberant, demoralizing, even tragic are all words that could be applied to describe this year.
2024 has been a year. This seems like such a colossal understatement.
Surprising, disappointing, exuberant, demoralizing, and even tragic are all words that could be applied to describe this year. Collectively as a culture, we have shared experiences of joy and hope for the future as well as anger and dread for what may lie ahead. As we journey together into 2025, let’s reflect on what we have witnessed and prepare for what is to come.
Let’s look at the challenges ahead. Our history is being erased from public education and from libraries across the country, affecting the education of our most vulnerable young minds. Affirmative Action, once a great tool for leveling the playing field not just for us but all underrepresented groups, has been struck down by the courts, and we are seeing our enrollment at the most prestigious institutions of higher learning decline. DEI efforts throughout corporate America are now being disavowed and dismantled. Voting rights and voter access are still not protected and are increasingly vulnerable to partisan gerrymandering and restrictive laws that dilute or altogether dismiss our votes. Scapegoating and vilification of our LGBTQIA brothers and sisters is at an all-time high both inside and outside of our community. Women’s health in general is under attack, and as always, this has a particularly devastating effect on Black women.
It sounds daunting, doesn’t it? But let’s take a breath and remember that we have been here before. Our honored ancestors who survived slavery and witnessed Reconstruction Era advances must have felt this way when those advances disappeared and “Jim Crow” rose in its place. Our forbears had to have experienced what we feel now when they saw civil and voting rights laws enacted on the one hand and our leaders and heroes assassinated and martyred on the other. What did they do? ENDURE. They survived, and now we must suit up and do the same.
UNITY will be our main protection as we face these challenges to our right and ability to fully participate in and benefit from our citizenship in this country. If we do not unify our community, if we fail to embrace and include all of our brothers and sisters in this struggle, we will be guilty of participating in and enabling our own oppression.
Stand Together or Fall Apart
We must resist allowing internal divisions to distract us from our true enemy. Straight, Gay, Trans, Male or Female, Old or Young, American or born elsewhere in the Diaspora, we are all one. Our shared history of oppression and survival undoubtedly makes us all BLACK. In the words of Q-Tip, “Black is Black.”
Let us support only those institutions, structures, and businesses within our community that support the ULTIMATE GOAL of unifying all of our people. We must resist the voices and movements that seek to divide us one from another because the only thing that comes after division is conquest. We need only look to history for confirmation of this fact. Scapegoating and demonizing one another is the road to defeat, and disagreement doesn’t make us enemies; it makes us human.
As a collective, we have to find a way to protect and assist our mothers, daughters, sisters, and “sistah” friends. We cannot leave them at the mercy of state legislatures and a healthcare system that has always treated them as less and now has the force of law in many states to ignore their well-being and allow them to die.
Conservative or Progressive, come my brothers and sisters and let us reason together. For those who have recently discovered that a place at THEIR table was never really prepared for you, come on home; there is room at our own table as there has always been. Use your talent and voice to strengthen our collective.
Our solutions must be those that can be fostered and sustained within our culture. Supporting education, commerce, charity, politics, and justice in our communities must be our first, second, and third priorities. Let us support one another so that a future for our children and our culture can be assured.
Oppression Is Not Just An American Thing
Being Black is not just an American thing. Yes, it has been a designation of Black American identity; however, as any racist will tell you, that designation does not end there. Blackness is defined more by our shared history of oppression, exploitation, and dehumanization as well as our survival throughout the diaspora. Whether you embrace the term Black or not, know that the legacy of racist abuse has harmed us all, and the struggle against those arrayed against us is a unifying force that transcends national boundaries.
We Know Our Enemy But Do We Know Our Friends
Let us make it common practice to evaluate the motivations of all who have access to our resources and who work within our community. Not everyone who looks like us is with us. We cannot afford to waste our energy fighting for those who are unwilling to fight for themselves or who fail to realize that their fate is intrinsically tied to that of their brother and sister.
When dealing with other communities of color, we must recognize when priorities do not align. Allyship must be reciprocal; otherwise, it is simply another form of exploitation. If we find that our support is not mutual, then we must prioritize the well-being of our own.
Inspire and Prepare
Let’s mentor and inspire our young activists and heroes. It is time for new movements and new initiatives and to allow new leaders to rise up. We must show the young that apathy and disengagement are traps set by oppressors to destroy future generations yet to be born. Our actions now determine their fight tomorrow. What kind of culture and world will we hand to them?
2025 is upon us. What part will you play as we face the challenges ahead? Is your resolve steadfast? Are your strategies clear? Are you rooted in self-serving complacency or in collective advancement? The time is now to take you stand.
The Struggle Continues . . .
2024 has been a year. This seems like such a colossal understatement.
Surprising, disappointing, exuberant, demoralizing, even tragic are all words that could be applied to describe this year. Collectively as a culture, we have shared experiences of joy and hope for the future as well as anger and dread for what may lie ahead. As we journey together into 2025, let’s reflect on what we have witnessed and prepare for what is to come.
Let’s look at the challenges ahead. Our history is being erased from public education and from libraries across the country affecting the education of our most vulnerable young minds. Affirmative Action, once a great tool for leveling the playing field not just for us but all under-represented groups, has been struck down by the courts and we are seeing our enrollment at the most prestigious institutions of higher learning decline. DEI efforts throughout corporate America are now being disavowed and dismantled. Voting rights and voter access are still not protected and are increasingly vulnerable to partisan gerrymandering and restrictive laws that dilute or altogether dismiss our votes. Scapegoating and vilification of our LGBTQIA brothers and sisters is at an all time high both inside and outside of our community. Women’s health in general is under attack and as always this has a particularly devastating effect on Black Women.
It sounds daunting, doesn’t it? But let’s take a breath and remember that we have been here before. Our honored ancestors who survived slavery and witnessed Reconstruction Era advances must have felt this way when those advances disappeared and “Jim Crow” rose in its place. Our forbears had to have experienced what we feel now when they saw Civil and Voting Rights laws enacted on the one hand and our leaders and heroes assassinated and martyred on the other. What did they do? ENDURE. They survived, and now we must suit up and do the same.
UNITY will be our main protection as we face these challenges to our right and ability to fully participate in and benefit from our citizenship in this country. If we do not unify our community, if we fail to embrace and include all of our brothers and sisters in this struggle, we will be guilty of participating in and enabling our own oppression.
Stand Together or Fall Apart
We must resist allowing internal divisions to distract us from our true enemy. Straight, Gay, Trans, Male or Female, Old or Young, American or born elsewhere in the Diaspora, we are all one. Our shared history of oppression and survival undoubtedly makes us all BLACK. In the words of Q-Tip, “Black is Black”.
Let us support only those institutions, structures and businesses within our community that support the ULTIMATE goal of unifying all of our people. We must resist the voices and movements that seek to divide us one from another because the only thing that comes after division is conquest. We need only look to history for confirmation of this fact. Scapegoating and demonizing one another is the road to defeat and disagreement doesn’t make us enemies, it makes us human.
As a collective, we have to find a way to protect and assist our mothers, daughters, sisters, and “sistah” friends. We cannot leave them at the mercy of state legislatures and a healthcare system that has always treated them as less and now has the force of law in many states to ignore their well being and allow them to die.
Conservative or Progressive, come my brothers and sisters and let us reason together. For those who have recently discovered that a place at THEIR table was never really prepared for you, come on home, there is room at our own table as there has always been. Use your talent and voice to strengthen our collective.
Our solutions must be those that can be fostered and sustained within our culture. Supporting the education, commerce, charity, politics and justice in our communities must be our first, second and third priority. Let us support one another so that a future for our children and our culture can be assured.
Oppression Is Not Just An American Thing
Being Black is not just an American thing. Yes it has been a designation of Black American identity, however as any racist will tell you that designation does not end there. Blackness is defined more by our shared history of oppression, exploitation and dehumanization as well as our survival throughout the diaspora. Whether you embrace the term Black or not, know that the legacy of racist abuse has harmed us all and the struggle against those arrayed against us is a unifying force that transcends national boundaries.
We Know Our Enemy But Do We Know Our Friends
Let us make it common practice to evaluate the motivations of any and all who have access to our resources and who work within our community. Not everyone who looks like us is with us. We cannot afford to waste our energy fighting for those who are unwilling to fight for themselves or who fail to realize that their fate is intrinsically tied to that of their brother and sister.
When dealing with other communities of color, we must recognize when priorities do not align. Allyship must be reciprocal otherwise it is simply another form of exploitation. If we find that our support is not mutual then we must prioritize the well being of our own.
Inspire and Prepare
Let’s mentor and inspire our young activists and heroes. It is time for new movements and new initiatives, and to allow new leaders to rise up. We must show the young that apathy and disengagement are traps set by oppressors to destroy future generations yet to be born. Our actions now determine their fight tomorrow. What kind of culture and world will we hand to them?
2025 is upon us. What part will you play as we face the challenges ahead? Is your resolve steadfast? Are your strategies clear? Are you rooted in self-serving complacency or in collective advancement? The time is now to take you stand.
The Struggle Continues. . .
Africa is the next savior of America 2035 one out of every 5 will live in Africa it’s the land of many and plenty get in now or be left out tomorrow..take a visit like the others who brought us here to Jamestown Va.against out will
It’s time for a change educate your mind and the rest will follow
The music of the drum is the message to come..Palace of The Lost City in Sun City South Africa will show you how and why and what for!!