And it Continues...

Today collectively as a country, we celebrate Columbus Day. A ha ha ha....a joke! That is known and has been known so I won't even go in on that right now. I want to go in on my people! Yes, I do !

My father has always tried to expose my siblings and I to what it means to be a Black man/woman in America, no in this world. He read many books to us growing up that made us aware of our history and how it takes such a strong individual to withstand the tourture that was put upon our ancestors and will be put upon us in many ways

Today, as a family, we watched the first chapter of Alex Haley's Roots. Now yes, I am 24 years old and I have watched roots before at different points in my life. And at all of these different points of life, I took the same thing away....Wow look at how we were treated and how I got here to this country. I also always took something extra or began to compare the struggle that Kunta Kenti faced with the one Blacks face now.

There are major aspects that are present in the film, that are sometimes not present in the Black community now......
I watched a village's men take their sons and attempt to instill in them what is needed to be a strong man. And not just a strong man for himself, but for his family AND his village. Instead of trying to bring down eachother to better himself. Imagine how powerful those villages were! Just by bonding together. Now imagine how powerful Blacks would be if we bonded together to raise eachother up! That would be a beautiful thing.

I watched other Africans in the film work together to capture other Africans...after being what I consider brainwashed by the Europeans. The year 2007, the hate we have for eachother, where do you think it stems from?!

Now, I am not trying to go off on a Black Power rant...I am just very aware of what was done to ME and try my best not to be mentally enslaved the way much of my community is.

Yes, the white man owned slaves, so did the black man. And everyother race. It doesn't take away the fact that it was and still is wrong.

I couldn't imagine being on those ships. Unbearable. I couldn't even take it when I visited a concentration camp in Germany. Still, even though Blacks were not held there...still unbearable.

Next week we will pick up on the next chapter of Roots. Its very hard to watch, but always puts life in perspective for me.

A lot of people went through things I could not imagine facing, they made it out! I am just continuing the story of my people. The story of the fighters!

Peace,

Ms. Sequin