New Year, New Challenges, and a Prayer...
Welcome to 2007!!! A new year is exciting, especially in a family, like the Williams-Rivers Family, which stresses goal setting, acheivement and forward progress. It is a time to look forward to the things we will do, but it is also a time to look back and count blessings for the opportunities we have had, which have gotten us to where we are now. We pay special tribute to our family elders upon whose shoulders we literally stand. Our triumphs don't happen in a vacuum, for every college graduation, flourishing career and prospering business, there is a trail of "blood, sweat, and tears," that leads back many generations...and passes through those for whom opportunity was scarce, challenges were many, and triumphs were few. When we fail, we must remember them and persevere. When we succeed, we must share credit where credit is due...with those who came before and paved the way.
We are the living embodiment, not only of Grandma Mandi, but culturally, genetically and spiritually--of all the mothers, fathers, uncles, aunts, grandmothers and grandfathers, who have poured their emotional, spiritual and financial efforts into our existence. It's an indisputable connection that is easy to forget, and is easily broken unless we provide conscious nurture to every new generation. The need for such affirmations are clear--we MUST define ourselves as people, as families, and as human beings and as American and World citizens, because the "manistream world's" definition(s) of us is UNACCEPTABLE. Allowing any of us, young or old to accept and be bound by these definitions is like commiting mental suicide.
The "mainstream world" --the Media, the Educators, Politicians, Corporate Decision makers, etc.-- They tend to define us based on numbers, probabilities, stereotypes, trends and statistics, and when you look at that picture, it is easy to get discouraged. To them we are the PROBLEM: We are the unemployed, the under-employed, the government supported, the unlikely voter, the single parented, the drug addicted, the HIV positive, the teen parented, the gang affiliated, the underclass, the unfairly promoted, the likely murdered, as well as the likely perpetrater. In as much as anyone buys into these lables--these things become true, self fullfilling prophecies.
But our grandmothers knew better. They saw our brightness before we saw it ourselves. They were the ones who told us that WE COULD DO IT--AS WELL OR BETTER THAN ANY OTHER COULD--if we were willing to work at it, and fail some on the way. Our parents knew our possiblities, even as they struggled to provide whatever they could for us. Our aunts and uncles saw our uniqueness, even when our brothers and sisters could not. Family are the ones who know that each one of us began as a dream-- a sparke in someone's eye, a wish for a better tommorrow and a belief in the future. This is the power of extended family. More experience, more perspective, more mentors, more role models, A CLEARER AND BETTER DEFINITION OF WHO WE ARE.
From our ancestor's perspectives. Right now, as we live our lives--and experience our challenges...as people, as parents, as children of God, they are each invested in our individual success, and WE are the only reason that they ever existed and struggled at all.
We are the living embodiment, not only of Grandma Mandi, but culturally, genetically and spiritually--of all the mothers, fathers, uncles, aunts, grandmothers and grandfathers, who have poured their emotional, spiritual and financial efforts into our existence. It's an indisputable connection that is easy to forget, and is easily broken unless we provide conscious nurture to every new generation. The need for such affirmations are clear--we MUST define ourselves as people, as families, and as human beings and as American and World citizens, because the "manistream world's" definition(s) of us is UNACCEPTABLE. Allowing any of us, young or old to accept and be bound by these definitions is like commiting mental suicide.
The "mainstream world" --the Media, the Educators, Politicians, Corporate Decision makers, etc.-- They tend to define us based on numbers, probabilities, stereotypes, trends and statistics, and when you look at that picture, it is easy to get discouraged. To them we are the PROBLEM: We are the unemployed, the under-employed, the government supported, the unlikely voter, the single parented, the drug addicted, the HIV positive, the teen parented, the gang affiliated, the underclass, the unfairly promoted, the likely murdered, as well as the likely perpetrater. In as much as anyone buys into these lables--these things become true, self fullfilling prophecies.
But our grandmothers knew better. They saw our brightness before we saw it ourselves. They were the ones who told us that WE COULD DO IT--AS WELL OR BETTER THAN ANY OTHER COULD--if we were willing to work at it, and fail some on the way. Our parents knew our possiblities, even as they struggled to provide whatever they could for us. Our aunts and uncles saw our uniqueness, even when our brothers and sisters could not. Family are the ones who know that each one of us began as a dream-- a sparke in someone's eye, a wish for a better tommorrow and a belief in the future. This is the power of extended family. More experience, more perspective, more mentors, more role models, A CLEARER AND BETTER DEFINITION OF WHO WE ARE.
From our ancestor's perspectives. Right now, as we live our lives--and experience our challenges...as people, as parents, as children of God, they are each invested in our individual success, and WE are the only reason that they ever existed and struggled at all.
Labels: black self image, honoring ancestors, stereotypes
posted by Eric J Williams at 9:28 AM
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