Happy Brunch Sunday from Florida! Raise your mimosas or mugs and let's clink a cheers to a bit of connection between work, notices and ads in your inbox. Written with a London accent in my head. Reading with an accent is completely your (next best) decision.
Wishing all a sacred and celebratory June 19th this weekend. No, I'm not visibly black. My genetic feedback would say I am a percentage African, as would yours. We are all of African descent.
How long have natives and blacks "celebrated" July 4th, Independence Day, when it was not their own? So we're flipping the script and we/white people can sit with a national celebration that they themselves do not claim as their own. No big deal. No drama. It's a simple shift, and it is doable, and necessary. When we teach history, we should teach all history. When we say we are not racist, we can be Not Racist in all aspects of our lives, our calendars and our neighborhoods.
I say Can Be, instead of Should Be, because a should in our thoughts just creates inaction and guilt. There is no Should. I can.
With Covid as the match to incite this, many white people are seriously thinking about how they CAN.
What Can we do?
We can Question the history that we think you know. Learn.
Question, WHY? --every white suburb has a little "brown town," as my neighbor called it as she drove me to the book club at the library, where not one brown person sat in the circle discussing a white-authored book. Modern segregation.
Question, WHY? --voter turnout for those lil 'brown towns' is so low. Modern suppression.
And for sure, Why are the percentage of deaths from Covid19 higher if the patient is black? Health care is not given equally.
It is tied to your employment,
which is tied to your education,
which is tied to your skin color.Â
Each day, I hear my voice reading these words, spoken by a local, black Bernie '16 man in his social media posts for over a year: "Y'all gonna LEARN today!"
We can do that.
I have so much to learn, and then to stand up for.
If we believe in God, we have no other choice but to align ourselves with all of his children. If we don't believe in a god, then it is upon us all alone to make a change. Today.
Today's Deep Breath: (Here's a practical juju nugget, a collective Next Best Decision.)
What do you enjoy the most in your life?
Is it the people around you? The one bath you take on the weekend, locked in your bathroom? Or reading a book before falling asleep? Listening to music in the car with the windows down? Podcasts in your ears as you walk your neighborhood?
Can we invite blackness into these moments of our days?
Equal Air Time. It is a concept to manage your thoughts. If one thought is not serving you, balance it with another that compensates for the discomfort of the first. Just equal air time. If you listen to Brene' Brown's podcast, also listen to 1619, or Code Switch. Dick Clark and Soul Train. Explore how black music is the foundation for ALL the popular music we grew up listening to: Buddy Guy, Hubert Sumlin and Nina Simone. Oh, sweet Marvin Gaye. Gary Clark Jr.
Start with Unapologetically Black and Throwback Jams Fltr.
Download what you like. Pay them.
Equal air time.
Until next time,
Tami Lowe
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