Nobody More Than the black man: For GiGI

We can make changes now which will benefit all of us, changes which will elevate each and every one of us.  We can make systems more equitable for everyone; we’ve only just begun. We can’t afford to keep leaving folks behind, and we have left a lot of folks behind. Nobody more than the black man.  

We can’t forget the look in black men’s eyes as they spoke their truth and their fear and their frustration. We can’t forget all of the mamas crying out for their babies in his name, standing up for him because his mama is gone.  We can’t forget all the names we have forgotten or never even had the chance to know; we cannot forget all of the humans who have been silenced through years of slow smothering by a system we owe nothing to.  We can’t forget that each of them was human. 

We have to breathe new air into gasping communities…into *our* community.  We owe nothing to a system that continues to threaten our community.  Community needs Equity, Equity brings true diversity, Diversity and Cooperation foster Innovation.  We have got to dispel this notion that, for me to win you must lose.  We need to recognize that this isn’t about inviting folks to the table, it’s about the fact that folks shouldn’t need an invitation and we shouldn’t have the right to give one. We owe it to our community and ourselves. 

We need a bigger table.

It needs to be all of ours, everyone is welcome.  A society can’t be great if each of its members isn’t allowed equal opportunities to reach their full potential and an individual in an unequal society is harmed by the inequities.  

Nobody more than the black man, though.

And nobody more than the black man’s mama, his brothers and daughter…

I hope you remember his daughter; her face, caught in media headlights, searching.

Remember how she hears her daddy’s name echoing in the streets at night but she cannot reach out to touch him.  She can’t wrap her arms around his knee and hide from the crowd and feel safe.

I hope y’all remind her she is strong.  We know because *he* was strong; and her mama is strong.  I hope y’all remind her how fierce his love for her was and i hope that we all remind each other that all ferocity should be in love.  I hope she grows up to realize that the world didn’t turn her father into a martyr or a hero;  the entire world *recognized* his light and rose up, fiercely in love, wanting to *protect* it. Something in the core of every human cried out as we watched that light disappear under the weight of “just another bad apple”.  It echoed through each of us..

You cannot hide away the light

They tried to hide away his light.

They took his life.

But, I hope she knows that they could never take his light.  We all saw it.  Her daddy, somehow, shared it with the entire world and we rose up to say that we won’t let them hide his light. And we won’t let them hide anyone else’s and we will not let anyone so casually take another life. 

I know none of that helps when you’re a little girl who just wants hide behind your daddy’s leg. None of that’ll help her feel safe right now.  But, I still hope she knows just how strong she is because she knows just how strong his light is. So strong it lit a fire in our bellies and our streets and nobody will *ever* hide it away again.

We must continue fiercely *in love* to protect each and every one of us and to allow all of us to shine.