Your Heart Beats Red. So Does Mine.
As you may know already from reading my blog, I am a praying, bible reading, empathizing, motivating, pragmatic realist, but not perfect by any means momma. This fabulous month of February, we are celebrating Black History Month and Valentine's Day and I thought I'd share race and love in one from a different perspective! There's so many ways to look at it but at the end of the day, it's a heart issue no matter what or how it's walked out in society. Something so microscopic in nature has become the billboard openly and secretly in our world, even though there are many who say that racism is a thing of the past. Well today, I would like to challenge you and allow you to see yourself whether you are on the side of color or not. It's still your issue even if you feel like it does not effect you. I want to share some truths with you and provoke your conscious as well as share what I'm teaching my son at the tender age of 1 now.
I was raised with the understanding to love and respect people. Do I have to agree with you? No. I'm just supposed to love you and treat you kindly is what I was taught. Now, what I've found out the hard way is that, if you don't agree with people's decisions, lifestyle, etc then they perceive that as judging them and the other side of it is that ... *drum roll... People are just soooooooooo "SENSITIVE"! (I could write a book on that by itself and set about 95% of people free!) If you're that person, I hate to tell you this, but like my mom told me many times growing up, "Get over yourself. People have a right to agree and disagree whenever they please. It's their right." With that being said, I'm teaching my son to love and respect people more than anything by being the greatest example of that I can. It will not be based off color, sexual orientation, gender, size, sexual preference, disability, smart, ignorant, rude, background, economic status, ranking, law enforcement, etc... Just purely because that person has a heartbeat. It's the one thing that makes and breaks us day in and day out when not done properly. It's not even about whether I fully understand everything you are or believe, it is about whether or not I can still love and respect you based on the fact that you are another human being.
Preach!
People love to quote the sins of the Bible and I do believe that there are sins. However, there's 2 other things God holds near and dear that are quoted as well that people conveniently keep to themselves in the solitude of their lovely and "perfect" knowledge filled hearts and minds: 1. We are not to judge others. God is the only one to do that. (Matthew 7:1-2) That is Gods job and his alone. 2. The second commandment Jesus gave was to "love." (Matthew 22:37-39) We are to love one another. There's a period at the end of that with no explanation of circumstances as to who should and should not be loved. Many people won't ever go near or read the bible because of religious people that give religion a bad name, Christianity especially. A good number have messed up because instead of reading the Bible for inspiration, knowledge, understanding, and seeing your own personal convictions for yourself, people read it and go out and judge others based on the thing that was meant for them to be corrected in their own hearts, skipping over lots of life lessons and the true teachings of Jesus Christ. Yes there are parts of the bible that can be misconstrued or you just plainly disagree with, but it's in those moments that you ask God to open your understanding and give you clarity on what it really means to Him. To make up your own translation is the worst thing you can do. That's how religion was misused to enslave people, not just physically but psychologically and emotionally.
Getting to a place where you can love people appropriately, requires some maturity and lots and lots of practice. Some of us are so far gone that our minds have to be renewed in it. For a lot of us though, we have to put our preferences, beliefs, hurts, pasts, experiences and lack of understanding aside and just say, "But this person in front of me didn't do it to me. Others did" or "This person clearly has some growing to do so I'm going to be the example today and not the problem." Omg does it take some practice and maturity to get here!!! I've even lost it and had to say "Lord forgive me. I was wrong even though they were flat out wrong too."
My Experience
Have I experienced prejudice, racism, etc? ABSOLUTELY!!! Still do! I was aware that I was black at a very young age, elementary that is and the older I got the more pronounced it became and I would know by the way they spoke to me or over me with certain lingo, addressed me, ignored me, or even stared at me. My mother and father were brought up when the "signs" (no coloreds allowed) were still up. I grew up with the signs down but it wasn't much different. My mother told me stories from when I was just weeks old how white people made comments to her about me so she had to keep me covered up when in public until my pigment came in. For those who don't know, many black babies are born very fair skinned and then our color starts to come in over the next days or many weeks after. For some of us who are much lighter in skin complexion, their isn't such a drastic change in our color once it comes in. Now that amazing sun helps as we get older to give us more color. (Hallelujah! For those like myself who like to tan in the summers!) But that "wainch" called winter steals all your hard work. Now some may ask, "Why tan if you're 'dark' already?" Wellllllll, precious people, because for me, myself, and I... it's my prerogative! Haha! Yes I said that! It most certainly is. Why are you judging?!!? See we just talked about that and you just did it on something so minute and barely important of a fact. Case in point! We judge people on EVERYTHING and we wonder why it goes round and round never ending, cycling and recycling. We've created the cycle and now only we are the ones that can break it. Can we handle it? Do you even want to change? Or is it that I need to change and you're already perfect? Either way, your color will forever be and my color will forever be. I can't change the color of my blood and neither can you so we might as well get along and love each other whether you understand me or not. Now go and practice loving and treating people with kindness just because they're human. (Not because it's V-day! Ha!). Have an amazing week and remember you're absolutely already AMAZING beauties!
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