Transformation

I created this blog for a creative outlet, a way to take up space, avoid being erased, and to hopefully share a piece of me that will inspire others to start their journey. Since 1619, Black folks have been tortured, extracted from, erased, minimized, dehumanized, tortured, stereotyped, targeted, and been subjected to servitude. This is not new and did not end with the abolition of slavery. The system at the hands of those who control it create new ways to enslave our minds and bodies. I have grown in my perspective of why that is. For me, it is a matter of culture. Black and Brown culture, as a I am a multicultural woman of Black and Mexican decent, are both rooted in cooperativism and the village mentality. 

Our societies from our native tribes in Africa to the Olmecs were based in the good of the collective. We were creators and not destroyers. Our cultures went from creating for the community good to creating so that the conditions we were forced into would be a little easier, classic example is the creation of the cotton gin. Attributed to Eli Whitney, sometimes said to be stolen from a rich white woman plantation owner by the name of Catherine Greene, and rarely mentioned that it is rumored to have been created by African Slaves. This is a common theme from the time. Black people could not apply for patents, invent, or do anything except what their owners dictated to them. In fact, supremacy goes so deep that any advanced civilization my ancestors created is attributed to the work of alien beings from another world because that is how deep the conditioning goes. We are literally erased from our own societies and accomplishments because some believe we could not possibly be capable of being contributing members of society let alone the creators of entire civilizations. They knock off our noses and features from statues as they did with ancient Egyptian history. They burned our books and killed our elders so that our history and the knowledge of our accomplishments would always be challenged as fiction and not held as fact. Our culture has been appropriated and sold for profit. 

With that being said, we are not a monolith. You can talk to 100 Black people and get 100 different perspectives and ideologies. None of us are wrong and in fact it is not a matter of right and wrong. It is a matter of being heard, being seen, and being valued for the various perspectives we have as human beings navigating the world in Black and Brown bodies. Race is a construct tied to when the first settlers came here to this country and stole it. It is a cast system of sorts that relegates certain people benefit from others and to be provided certain privileges that others do not have. As I stated, it is a matter of culture. Why do I think race and all of the atrocities tied to that concept are still so prevalent? Fear. Those who oppress come from a long linage of destruction and they cannot fathom how a paradigm shift could possibly lead to their own people not becoming the oppressed and being thrust into the same conditions that the rest of us currently suffer under. My background ,while rooted in health, has also been in project and change management. One of the principles of this work to make sure that you are solving the right problem is to ask why until you cannot anymore. So when I ask why do they think that, it takes me down the path of history. Americans are not taught the real history of its country, its founders, and the legacy that it left. It does not teach us anything about anyone else except for from a lens of destruction. Black people and slavery is the only thing taught and then we get a sprinkle of a handful of mainstream names for Black History Month, the shortest month of the year, Juneteenth is a new concept for some. Another why? If the real history was known it would start the asking of the question why all over this country and would most certainly lead to the dismantling of a system that most never question because it benefits them. They do not question the government that created it and upholds it because it benefits them. That fear is irrational and based on nothing. 

In my blog posts, I will share my stories and experiences juxtopositioned against not just our history but current events as I live them. Facets of me is just that. 

I am a multi faceted intersectional woman with a story to tell. My life is not unique in that I was born as all beings are brought into the world but my story is in fact unique because no one can say that they have walked in my shoes, seen the world through my eyes, felt the weariness of my soul, or created a thought through my mind. In that way, I am unique. 

I am looking forward to sharing a piece of myself in the hopes that it sparks others to start their truth journeys. With the fires burning throughout the world and in our hearts and souls, I already see us not absorbing what is happening in this moment and pausing to just be still in it. Sit in the muck. Reflect on our own lives, actions, and knowledge base as it relates to our history, present, and future. Before we start doing anything else, we each need to face ourselves and decide where we stand, who we aspire to be, what we need to change within ourselves, and then and only then, can we come together to do the same as a collective in our own communities. To do anything else dooms us to make the same intentional mistakes that got us here. It is just like going to work sick. Yes, work will be done. But it will not be out best work. We will not be our best selves. And because we are selfish or our employers are selfish not to prioritize our full health, we will infect others and make them sick. Racism is a sickness. Being well and connected in mind, body, and spirit is not some kind of "whodo" notion. It is about balance and self awareness. Until we can face ourselves and meet the challenge of committing to personal change, nothing else in the world will change either and we will create a replica of the current systems. Symbolic change: new name, new uniforms, new language and narrative but with the same outcomes, disparities, and oppression at its foundation. We must look at the ways that we participate in our own oppression and feed into the supremacy that has polluted our minds and stunted our growth. We did not create it but in what ways do we feel beholden to it ? By- attempts at reforming it and forcing it to recognize us when it was never created for us. It is working just as it was intended.