I had to write about this, it’s who I aspire to be.
The #BlackBlogsMatter Challenge has really made me go deep in history and learn things that were never taught to me in a classroom. It has inspired me to find out more about the men and women who spoke truth in a movement that tried, at every turn, to silence them.
#BlackBlogsMatter has made me more comfortable in my skin and work harder to achieve success. Not the success of money, while that would also be great, but the success of a voice.
A few days ago, I typed in Young Gifted and Black to the Google search to find those people and those voices and I got Ms. Nina Simone.
I’ve watched this video countless times, the first time I got chills.
If you do nothing else today, if you don’t even read the words I’ve typed, please watch the entire length of this video.
How can something from so long ago, be so relevant to me today.
When I started HR, I felt like I was too old to achieve anything, I had started too late in the game. So much pressure is put on the younger generations to get degrees and go to college, but no one is reaching out to help pay for the thousand dollars of debt we’ve collected.
We are gifted but silenced because we want things that your generation was too scared to ask for. We are Black and not enough because of our skin color. We are young and dying. Dying of depression, mental health problems that no one wants to face or tell us to ignore, financial stress, being told that we demand too much, so we don’t believe we deserve what should be ours, not even our life.
To be Young, Gifted, and Black …
I want to support the people who look like me, especially. The people whose parents fought to go to school without having things thrown at them. The people whose parents had bricks thrown through their windows in the middle of the night and crosses lit on fire in their yards. The people who’ve heard the stories of their parents and great-grandparents not being able to eat at a restaurant, walk down the street just to get somewhere. For the young man who was beaten so bad and killed for an accusation of smiling at a white woman. For the 4 Little Black Girls who lost their lives trying to enjoy church that Sunday. For the young man who couldn’t walk home from getting a pack of skittles and a sweet tea. For the nine Black men, women, and children who wanted to go to bible study on Wednesday night.
We are creative, we are thoughtful, we feel, we encourage, we are Young, Black, and Gifted for the ones who’ve had their voices taken away too soon.
Just Hold On …
#BlackBlogsMatter
HRJazzy 