Strength is inherent or often navigated by example – the principles and morals taught at home, where girls learn self-respect; the value of an education; their love is not for sale. Having a foundation that cultivates confidence is the differential that can transform a girl into a respectable woman armed with strength, opposed to one without standards.
How did music come from a people taken from their land – relegated to slavery, fatal atrocities? ... Alienated from their culture?
Through centuries of enslavement, hope ensued and the endemic relics of their music, culture and mores, turned into blues … rhythms, dialects, and the cultivation of a people poised with dignity and divine solidarity. _________________________________
To have a dream often requires mental autonomy when no
one believes but you – when no one can see it but you. But a dream that
promotes humanity, as that envisioned by Martin Luther King, Jr., is immeasurable.
Though it’s a conversation that will always be debated, I still find this racial slur offensive regardless of who uses the word or how it is used.
After having my commentary,
“Denouncing the N word,” published in a lifestyle magazine over twenty years
ago, I find the word more offensive, observing its insidious damage to those
who view it as innocuous, and witnessing the blatant damage to those who are
fully aware of its harm.
It’s not the etymology of the
word that mystifies, but it’s preservation and longevity that is deeply
ingrained in the human psyche that it has developed a life of its own, obliviously
passed down through generations that some for whom it was intended to offend are
immune to its intra-racial use.
More than an implosive word
that has turned on itself within some parts of the black community, it’s a commodified
utility that’s heard in songs and movies, as I have seen great dramas use the
word incessantly till it racially emasculates and eviscerates dignity –
the flaw that I feel if omitted would elevate these shows to their highest
merit.
WHY?
Some of the best songs are contemplative inquiries,
petitioning for peace and unity, as the 70’s hit, “Why Can’t We Live
Together,” written, sang and instrumentalized by late R&B singer and keyboardist,
Timmy Thomas. As with such songs they
are infinite reflections of our current times.
For more on the historical background of this song and to
listen, visit:
Each year as Memorial Day is celebrated, some of us not only think about those who have served in the military, but also civilian loved ones who are no longer with us, and the words they often spoke that we memorialize, as we repeat them and heed the wisdom attached to their words and sayings.
These sayings may have been passed down through
generations; derived from biblical scriptures, or coined from sacred lessons that
are relevant to our times and hold the solution to living a victorious life.