Martin Luther King, Jr.
Rosa Parks
George Washington Carver
Harriet Tubman
Malcolm X
Medgar Evers
Oprah Winfrey
Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, Denise McNair - the sweet victims of the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing in 1963.
Ralph Abernathy
Maya Angelou
Josephine Baker
Benjamin Banneker
Bill Cosby
W. E. B. Dubois
Frederick Douglass
Ruby Bridges
Nelson Mandela
Desmond Tutu
Lena Horne
Barack Obama
Jesse Jackson
Coretta Scott King
The Freedom Riders
Wilma Rudolph
Arthur Ashe
Sojourner Truth
Colin Powell
Condoleeza Rice
Today we honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and remember his dream. As I drove to work today after dropping my very sweet, happy boy off I realized how very blessed we are, how blessed he is. This young black American I'm raising. And I realized how very far we have left to go in this country towards racial equality and peace.
Yes we have inaugurated our first black President for the second time today. Barack Obama has been sworn into office as our 44th President of the United States of America. I'm so proud of him, to be an American and to be able to bear witness to his leadership.
But it's come with a great price in the country of mine. A great price. Fear and hatred are running rampant. And racism is as entrenched in our lives as it ever was.
In fact, I've been told a few patients' parents have, when told my boss is going to be out of the office and that they can see her associate, they've asked..."What color is she?"
Yes, they want to know what color I am. This is how they determine whether I'm qualified to see their children.
By the color of my skin.
Not by my degrees.
Not by my knowledge and experience.
By the color of my skin.
Not by the content of my character.
By the color of my skin.
So as Dr. King said ...
...I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!
We will get to the promised land. I know we will. However, I am sadly sure I can look my sweet little boy in the eye and say I've seen the Promised Land, but I may not get there with him.
So this abbreviated list of African Americans who have made a difference in the lives of so many, certainly in my life will be on my list of people in history I have to be sure Tate learns about. He has to learn of whence he came. And I'm missing ALOT of people on my list. These are just the ones I could come up with tonight. There are many more. And I will have to be the one to teach him and in doing so learn myself. Because I know for sure he will NOT learn about them in any formal education in his lifetime. This is word of mouth.
And I'm forgetting I have two amazing African Americans in our lives right now who lived during the height of the Civil Rights Movement...his grandparents. They can educate us both. I intend for us to start as soon as we next see them.
So tonight I'm so very excited that President Obama is beginning his second term. I am excited about all the good I know he can and will bring to this country. I have hope that this very divided country can come back together and start to mend our very divided hearts.
May God bless us one and all and may God Bless America.
3 comments:
I believe my daughter & all children need to learn about those brave Americans you list, & not just the 2-3 chapters in her history books either.
Amen!
That is horrifying, that your patients want to know the color of your skin? Hard for me to believe, even! There is lots of institutionalized racism everywhere in this country, but I've never heard an overt comment like that. Ugly and disgusting.
We have quite a ways to go until your brown boy and my white girl BOTH arrive in that promised land. We need that for all our children, no matter what their color. And my child bears an extra level of responsibility that I will teach her to bear with grace and humility.
They want to know what? Are you kidding me? Let them fix their own kids' *$%@# teeth. Oh, wait, they don't know a bicuspid from a buccal.
I'm sorry you have to experience this as a professional. I'm even more sorry that our young children have to grow up in a world that has yet to extinguish racism.
We will teach them though, and so will millions of other parents. Maybe our grandchildren will be blissfully unaware of the hatred and inequalities. We can hope, we can work, we can pray.
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