The First African American Woman Physician

Why don't a majority of white Americans hear the cries of black and brown mothers, children, families? Why are we so numb from watching brown and black bodies be killed with impunity? Why are white Americans allowing black Americans to live with such fear and die at such alarming rates? What will it take for all Americans to understand that the 2020 pandemic and the summer of racial justice is a tipping point; an opportunity to listen and more importantly to do something? The cries certainly woke me from my comfortable white-washed slumber. It was one sentence which literally punched me into attention " A white boy's fun is a black boy's lawlessness." After raising 3 sons to fear nothing, to go for their dreams-that one sentence was a gut wrenching, I lost my breathe. Today, I breathe for racial justice and healing . In 2022, in the United States of American, not everyone is free. Black Americans are not free. They are unable to freely walk, jog, shop, drive and live without fear of retribution for just showing up in a space. All Americans are living through a racial and social justice awakening; a reckoning of sorts for America’s past sins. Its making a lot of people feel uncomfortable. It should. This beloved country of ours is built on a series of purposeful white lies, transgressions, and systems of oppression and brutality in the name of America capitalism, for a myth of white supremacy, for an ideal of 'the land of the free and the home of the brave'. But, who is free? Who is brave? Black Americans are extraordinarily brave and its time white Americans realize the consequences of inaction. We are in a moment of inflection, reflection, opportunity. Change starts with me. The blog and website is my personal quest to understand the origins of race, the idea and seeds of racism, how we got here, and its long term impact on me, my family, my community and the America that I call my home. Americans love their comfort. Times up. If for whatever reason, you don't get it what I am saying, hear me out. Sit tight. Take a deep breath, breath, be brave, let's get uncomfortable. I never fully acknowledged or understood the generational benefits of my privilege until I started digging into American history. The fact is that every American public, civic, social and economic contract and program from the 30's 40's 50's came at a high price to brown and black families and communities. Whether it was one of the first of many land acts, the new deal, the GI bill, mortgage loans and securities or access to education, employment, health or union benefits, Black families were locked out every step of the American dream. Each decade the barriers got higher and level of disparity got deeper and the blame was always squarely on behaviors rather on the racists policies and laws that created a type of American colonialism. It was not until the 2020 pandemic, as infections sored in communities of color, that we witnessed, saw with our own eyes, the seriousness of the structural inequalities of race. Many white Americans net worth sored while sheltering in place and working from home; however, the majority of people in communities of color had jobs that required them to leave the safety of their homes, as 'essential' workers in the food, health, transportation, travel industries, they keep the economic engine running. The pandemic and subsequent health care crisis has uncovered the fact that institutional white supremacy, the laws, policies, structures and practices that sustain it, are based on the oppression of others, especially people who are not white. These systems and structures sustain white privilege, generational wealth through access to good education, housing, employment, and access to economic capital that builds generational financial freedom. Wealth is not all about money; its also about access and justice. White Americans live life in a perpetual pass for their access and their privilege. I observe how we hold ourselves and how we show up in spaces, like we own it. However, people of color who are entitled to the same same privilege, when they show up in spaces with the same expectation, they are accused of playing the race card. That is racist. Consider this- You are in an airport about to step onto one of those automated walk ways. Think of the walk way as structural institutions that hold up our privilege. We are walking enjoying, traveling, without noticing that the walk-way has mostly been paved for the white middle class. We never recognized that there are ‘other’ folks who crawling, or some who for no fault of their own are walking backwards but never are we all in the same direction, as the majority of the white middle class. We pass along living our lives in a cloak whiteness and a false sense of freedom and safety. Then the pandemic strikes. Suddenly, the walk way is not safe for any one. In a moments notice, our safety is fraught with risk. Can we go out? Are we safe? Who can hurt us? Do we believe them? What does it mean for me and my family safety? Who do I listen to? Do we see the injustice? Do we speak up? Speak out? Do you let fear drive your decisions? An ally , is one who is willing, open, yet are fearful, if they speak up, they can only do so when it is safe. An accomplice is one who is willing to take a risk and speak up when it is dicey to do so. A co-conspirator is one who is proactive in the commitment for equality for all people. This requires a pledge to lean in, listen, learn, question, and engage. A co-conspirator asks to engage. They are self-aware not to come from the idea that- “I know better than you. Let me use my white privilege to tell you what you need” – A recipe for disaster. A co-conspirator uses their privilege, education, status and station as a spring board, an underpinning to shore up the voices of the voiceless, as a community activist, trainer, leader, student and parents. Its a day in and day out of experiences. They are keenly aware that their life, their very survival, depends on the survival of the most vulnerable and its their responsibility to keep the connection alive. Take the time to listen with an open heart to hear culturally, to see where you can help to be a resource to the people who are ready, able and willing. Whatever the commitment, a leadership role, volunteer with a shared vision of ‘equality and justice for all'. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZVILjJPreM&feature=youtu.be

A dinner that shook a Nation

Why does the 13th Amendment Matter?

1743- Ben Franklin at 34 was living a life of privilege in Philadelphia after fleeing Boston from a domineering and oppressive family. He was now able to express his thoughts after establishing many scholarly foundations. His commitment to science, knowledge and notions of universal progress was at the cornerstone of the Enlightenment age. He also ushered in racist’s ideology and thoughts. The philosophy of Enlightenment age gave legitimacy to this long-held racists ‘partiality’ the connections between lightness, whiteness and reason, on one hand, and between darkness, blackness and ignorance on the other.” 1764- After Mr. Franklin lost a political race for “his abusive and controversial comments about immigrants. Franklin wanted the British customs, language and culture to be the bedrock of US and not that from other parts of Europe.” His racist thoughts and ideas were cultivated by the promise of Pure White ownership and supremacy. The black, the tawny and the ones with swarthy complexion were seen merely as making this planet dirty! Something that only the purely white could rectify. https://drishtikone.com/blog/2016/10/18/trump-may-take-america-back-ben-franklins-shamefully-racist-times/

1743-1826 Thomas Jefferson American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. A missing fact from the sentence of his biography, Jefferson was a slaveholder of over 600 slaves, a small comparison to many American slave holders of the time, who were kept in his household and on his plantations. To say Jefferson was a complicated individual is a cop-out. Thomas Jefferson was a racist. His first purchase of a slave was at 21. He continued to hold slaves while righting the Declaration of Independence. The irony is not lost. His impact on race is deeply entrenched in our cultural rift today. His deeply rooted in prejudice, “classically both anti-slavery, anti-abolitionist, with a segregationist dose of nature’s distinctions, saturated in acknowledging white prejudice and discrimination,” 1 has done much damage to a country he held so dear. As Jefferson was penning, “all men are created equal,” that ‘men’ are endowed by their creator with inherent and inalienable rights among life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, enslaved men and women on his plantations were organizing to flee from his enslavement. Jefferson touted himself as an authority of ‘black intellectual inferiority’. This claim fostered an idea that black and white people could not live together in harmony as equals. This idea also made its way into written documents to justify slave and slavery policies. This deeply rooted American racist idea continues today. The political desire to justify racial inequality was born in this country, it was written and adopted by Americans. Only Americans can change it now. 1. Kendi, Ibram, Stamped From the Beginning. Thomas Jefferson - Wikipedia 9 of the Biggest Slave Owners in American History (atlantablackstar.com) Thomas Jefferson and Slavery | Thomas Jefferson's Monticello

The Birther of the Great White Lie

Does what I do really matter?

What can white people do to save black lives? Learn what it means to be an ally, an accomplice and co-conspirator in the fight for American social and racial justice in 2021. Its the right thing to do