Who is Responsible? The Race Cards are on the Table

Happy Sunday to all, I will be enjoying another beautiful sunny day here in NYC but I wanted to leave you with something to think about today. If we continue to not learn from the past, what future will we really have?

Today I went for a walk after work. It was my first walk of the year, this winter was a mess totally kept me working out indoors.
I love my walks, they allow my thoughts to flow freely just like the breeze flows freely above, beyond and through the trees. During my walk I was overcome by a sadness and a realization that I had never honored before.

As I watched young and old, women and men and a vast mixture of races all walking among themselves I had a huge question come to mind. Now I want to be clear...these are my thoughts and I want to share them with respect.That my purpose in every word I write, every post I share is to start a conversation. To provoke questions, thoughts, understanding, some more questions and some more thoughts that all lead to talks. This was a bit difficult for me to address but here it goes.

I am a minority woman of Hispanic decent. Even using these words gets tricky if you look at Wikipedia. I am caramel skin in completion, I was born in the United States but my family comes from the Dominican Republic, a Caribbean Island next to Haiti. They came here by choice, to build a better life because their homeland was a poor country. Their dreams or at least for some of them was to build and return to their country. That choice afforded me the life I have today, the life I've lived and the freedoms I've experienced. But, as I read the papers, watch the news and talk with my daughter I see another reality.

illustration by viartis.com

I see a reality of a certain group of people who were taken from their homes, had no say in the matter, were ripped away from loved ones and bought to another country to do the work that lazy people didn't want to do. Again I will repeat myself...taken away from their country forced to do the lazy man's work. Not approached as humans with an offer of a better life, not with an option to say no and not with an option to say yes and be treated humanely.

Why is no one thinking about that in this day and age? Why is no one owning up to that most important fact to the fullest extent all these years later? Again I repeat...taken away from their country. Then! when perhaps a chance has presented itself to gain some dignity gain some respect some equality it is met with death, destruction, more humiliation and no humanity. Why? Why are so few disturbed by this and so many quick to shrug off and walk away?

Why is my skin color less than or worth less than another? Why am I a minority? Why am I not the right type for your standards? And why are your standards the norm? I ask why am I because in the world I apparently live in I am either White or Black. And though my history is not of those that were taken from their land I feel a connection to their poor treatment and blatant disrespect. Today I am a voice for that story.

How can nothing have changed in so many years? Why do some feel they are still better than others? Why can I see small children all play together with no concept of differences but somehow they have parents who feel the need to focus on that and then point it out? Why are the young so accepting and the old so bitter?

illustration by theunrecordedman.wordpress.com

To find the music, the clothes, the culture as a whole acceptable to mimic and follow but not the actual people is disturbing to say the least. To use a variety of tools to make yourselves look a "certain" way but again not accept those of us who actually look this way is madness.

Are we not the same, really? If your child needed a heart transplant or a kidney would you reject it and watch them die because it didn't come from a person with the "right" skin color or background? If three teens died in a car crash and burned, would they not all look the same until they were identified through their teeth?!!! If your spouse was in distress would you not want them to be helped by whoever was the closest? Would you really tell that person of a different color or background to leave your loved one to suffer?

This is the reality...that backwards thinking that some peoples ancestors had many moons ago and bought to our way of living is wrong and inhumane. It was wrong when they took people from their homes then and it is wrong now when people are being shot and killed right in front of our faces. Who is responsible? Who is going to step up? Who or what is going to stop this? No one is better than...we literally are all the same. If I am to throw religion into this and so many of us are always praising the "Lord" are we not made in his image? Did he make a mistake? Was he wrong when he choose to use different shades, forms etc...to make his people?

illustration by jezebel.com

I am a mother, a good mother in the sense I strive to teach my child respect and love and kindness to all. In the sense that I raised my child to do her best and work hard. I am a mother figure to anyone who needs it. The kid next door, the kids in the park, the kids in the shelter I volunteer at. I am a mother. No one should ever feel they have the right to tell me my daughter is less than. No one should look at my daughter and see less than. But some do, because of her skin color because of her hair because of her background. Am I furious? of course, wouldn't you if your child was thought of as less than?

So I challenge us today, every mom who reads this to look at their child or their loved ones for that matter and imagine them being looked upon or treated as less than. It starts with one change, one thought, one light! Shine brightly as a human made in the image of '"God"

What are your thoughts, experiences, shares?

Always stress free xo.