Say it Loud....

I'm Black and I'm Proud:)
We are well underway into this Black History Month 2011. I could go sooo many places with this. Black history/herstory in Sports, Music, Medicine, Technology, Business, etc.

So instead I will go along the path that feels right to me this evening. It  is a path that looks back at ancestors I never knew, yet I love. I will admit, that a part of me hates the Ancestory.com commercials that promise insight into your family tree. A part of me wants to say, having a clear family tree, easily traced by something so simple as a last name is a sort of privilege. I can trace my family back but after awhile the people and places get jumbled and pushed around by slavery, oppression, prejudice and the like.

That to me is why Black History Month is so critical, because if we don't celebrate, we often forget. And I don't ever in my life want to forget the extreme sacrifice paid for my freedom. I share this life I call my own with generations of family who would not have dreamed that my reality was possible. I owe the happy, joyful, hardworking Sabrina that I am, to real blood, sweat, and tears of my family that was.

So maybe writing this has helped because I don't have to hate Ancestory.com. I can  be strengthened and renewed by the quiet whispers of long ago that settle in my soul and motivate me to go out there and grasp every single opportunity I can. I can understand that the past is full of pride for some and shame/indifference for others and the real sorrow in the whole thing is when we stop acknowledging that we all have a shared past and a shared future. That the people who can trace their family back 10 generations and the people who can't, need to come together and learn something from each other's experiences.

May this month, more than most, I open my eyes to hear and celebrate the stories all around me. And may I step boldly into my future carrying the spirit of all I hold dear close to my heart.