So, most of you have probably heard about the white business owner in New Jersey who had the image of President Obama as a “witch doctor” in his storefront window. It’s an image he swears isn’t racist.
Whatever.
To be honest, I’m much more concerned with what our community thinks of itself because it’s one thing if someone else views you as inferior, but it’s a whole 'nutha problem if you see yourself this way.
I recently read an article in the Washington Post by Marita Golden that spoke to the ‘color complex’ in black communities – not years ago, but right now.
Golden’s article depicted countless examples of self-hatred, including comments about how college students say they would ‘never marry a dark skinned female’; or how one woman was shocked to learn, upon the birth of her grandson, that her daughter had been quote-unquote, “praying that he’d come out light, like his father, not dark like me.”
Wow, will we ever get over this sickness? I mean, how long will we continue to hate ourselves, our beautiful African roots, and our darker hue?
Well, thankfully, the annual celebration of Community Healing Days designed to mobilize black people to overcome the lie of black inferiority is coming up this weekend.
That lie—and its devaluation of black hair, black skin, and every other aspect of black people-contributes to the low self-esteem of so many black folk, the black-white academic achievement gap, the mass incarceration of black men, the epidemic of violence, and many of the other problems facing our community.
To reverse these negative trends, we’ve got to engage in a fearless struggle for our psychological liberation and the Community Healing Network is working with the Association of Black Psychologists and leaders in Tuskegee, Alabama to create a nationwide grassroots network of self-help groups focused on emotional healing for Black people.
This year, The Association of Black Psychologists and Community Healing Network are asking black people to make personal commitments to emotional wellness by taking a pledge to defy the lie of black inferiority and embrace the truth of black humanity.
To get involved go to communityhealingnet.org and take the pledge to Defy the Lie and Embrace the Truth.
I’m going to leave you with words from a poem written by a talented young brother named A.D. Carson who is a leader of this effort.
“And if you tell a lie long enough,
if it gets far enough from its origin
that the people who tell it believe it to be true,
you can hold a mirror up to the most beautiful little brown boy or girl
and watch him frown a little,
watch her wince a bit,
see them deny what is the very definition of beauty
for the false belief that what they see is the exact opposite…
Emotional Emancipation is the defying of the lie…
Defy The Lie. Embrace the Truth.
Look into that mirror…and see beauty for what it is.
