Over the MLK Holiday weekend, I rallied alongside courageous teachers who love their job but don’t want to die in the pursuit of doing it in crowded in person classrooms in the midst of a pandemic. As I stood in solidarity with them and chanted in unity for there leaders to hear their needs for safe schools, I realized we were outside, freezing in the cold, as snow flurries grazed our faces and no one was coming to hear us. While I didn’t plan the rally and I don’t work with these teachers, I still wanted their voices to be heard so I stood there with them, sign in tow and kept chanting with the urgent rhythm of our collective demands. But even as I chanted, I strangely expected their leaders to be there to hear their concerns or respond. But of course, there was silence and we just screamed louder to the heavens. But we can unpack later why their was silence from our leaders. However, I think what's most important, beyond the silence, is the voices of those who were resolved to be heard. As the rally ended, and the energy of the moment subsided, I stepped back and took in the crowd of mostly masked black women, who you could tell knew this fight of not being heard all too well, but they stood resolved anyway as the cameras left to keep chanting. They looked like fighters, but still tired all the more. But this act of persistent fight, even when no one is listening and you too tired to move on, I truly believe this is how we will win justice and equity for marginalized and people of color. I also believe as we finally celebrate Kamala Harris, the first biracial WOMAN VICE PRESIDENT of the United States, that that work and fight will be led and organized by fearless ass women! (No shade to MLK, but all the organizing happened thru women, he was an awesome voice and face of a movement, but the workers were lots of women). My mom always asks me why you got to fight all the time and I always tell her that’s what’s necessary to make change. Because the truth is power never simply concedes it’s wrong or gives way to what is just, it will always be a hard fought battle to right wrongs and win justice. As we are witnessing right now, at the highest levels of this country’s leadership, they would rather stage an insurrection at the nation’s Capitol, than concede power, especially to a black woman. So how will we get to the one day where our children have access to high quality education, teachers are empowered to co-create a more holistic vision for children and communities have a supportive ecosystem to thrive? Today, I am certain that this change will happen only if we fight for it with intentionality and purpose ( and with some great women on the front lines...congrats to our new Madam Vice President). Historically, this has always been the case and even today as we feel victorious in this monumental moment of many FIRSTS, we must continue to fight with every tool in our arsenal to fully manifest the promises for our families and communities.
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Last Year was certainly a roller coaster for everyone. However, what has been most evident in the midst of all of the chaos of 2020 is that our most vulnerable and marginalized families have laid America’s own vulnerabilities bare naked as the world’s richest country scrambles to support them. Thankfully, this has forced an oversized, yet much needed microscope on the gaping holes that exist in our safety net across this country and left us to plot a new course forward ( hopefully to a more holistic and systemic resolve for everyone to thrive). Yet, these vulnerabilities feel more exacerbated in the city of Atlanta, the home of the MOST income inequality in the country, where Black people make up 56% of the city but 30% of Blacks, over half of them, live in poverty in comparison to 8% of their white counterparts. I cannot stress more than I have done before, that in the land of Black milk and honey, there is no greater myth than the myth that all Black folks are drinking from the same well in this city. We are not and this crisis has truly revealed a deeper drought for those Black families who have not tasted this milk and honey ever, despite the city’s eloquent branding otherwise. Last year stripped us naked for the world to see all our flaws, scars and old wounds that we never healed from, but my question for 2021 and beyond is “ Is seeing it enough?”. Is seeing a problem enough to move people to bolder action and steps in the future? I feel like if I have learned anything from this strange year with a global health pandemic it is if seeing massive scale death doesn’t jolt people into doing something simple like wearing a mask, then maybe seeing is not enough. Sadly, it takes more than seeing devastation up, close and personal to significantly alter the behaviors and subsequent decisions of people. Change is a tricky beast of a thing, especially when we live in sound chambers of people who think and believe what we do. But Kotter and Cohen in the book, The Heart of Change suggests, "The core of the matter is always about changing the behavior of people and behavior change happens in highly successful situations mostly by speaking to people's feelings". So with this in mind, I would say that the laser microscope view of our bare nakedness alone is not enough. But if we speak to people’s feelings about what they are seeing and give it context and humanity, THEN, maybe people will be called to move and move more boldly in the future, especially for our kids. I saw this over the Christmas holiday, when charitable giving is at an all time high. Communities banded together to bless others with gifts and through my own non-profit work, we raised over $7000 to help make Christmas memorable for kids in Atlanta (who don’t always get to even enjoy being a kid). I would say people saw kids in need all year long, but what moved them to act during this season was “a feeling”. Although, I will say the first step to bold change is seeing it, I believe the next and most vital step to action is really feeling it. For instance, I had one neighbor who visited one of our low-income housing complexes at Forest Cove and for the first time asked, “Does the city of Atlanta really let people live like this [in terrible living conditions]?”After seeing these poor living conditions, he felt something deeply needed to change and began working on a student mentorship program with the local schools to expose students in this neighborhood to professionals in their community. This is how we get to bold change and not this gradual piece-meal stuff we've been clinging to for far too long. But striking the right balance of seeing and feeling that resolves into meaningful action is a hard formula to master, but I think this is the secret sauce to change 2021 and beyond. People, businesses and communities that have found out how to strike the right balance have seen sweeping changes. Just look at the Truth Ad Campaigns that helped reduce youth smoking and over $5 billion in health care costs in the first two years, or the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) remediating blight in over 4000 blighted buildings and lots in Philadelphia reducing gun violence by 40%, or even Kim Kardashian taking up criminal justice reform work after she won a pardon for Alice Johnson from the President of the United States. In each of these successful change moments in history, people understood the importance of seeing and feeling to get to the change they desired. I mean today on New Years day, even for ourselves, we all have some kind of change we want to happen this year, but the only way we will achieve change is not just seeing or even understanding that something needs to change, but also finding the feeling in ourselves to make sustainable change for the future. So, today, on New Year’s Day, I think about what it will take for us to get to one day in 2021, where poorer Black and brown students have true access to a quality education and unlimited opportunities, where Black people are not sentenced to death for just being Black in our homes or for having a baby while Black in a hospital and families live in safe communities that allow them and their kids to thrive. It will take us using this secret sauce to change and using it with decision makers at every level of our society to make change happen for our most vulnerable families and kids. It will take us ( especially those of us with privilege or sit in seats of power) being unashamed to stare at the bare nakedness of our problems, deepening our experiences with them by asking deeper questions, and finding the feeling for us to mobilize others to do the same. This is the work for 2021 and beyond. We are not there yet, but we are on our way. |
AuthorEducator, student advocate and community activists. Archives
October 2021
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