A Message to my Failure

Failure is the start
Of an attempt at success...
The birth of progress.

Photocredit: Unsplash.com/Esteé Janssens

Book Review: The Girl With Seven Names

The Girl With Seven Names: Escape from North Korea by Hyenseo Lee is an eye-opening recounting of one woman's journey from mental enslavement to freedom, as well as a coming of age story in the midst of a harsh reality.

I had no idea what I was getting into when I picked up The Girl With Seven Names: Escape from North Korea by Hyenseo Lee. I've been experimenting with non-fiction and biographies lately, and in my last "trip"[1] to the bookstore I decided to pick up books from cultures I didn't know anything about. I think it's pretty safe to say none of us know much about North Korea (other than the fact that the US does not want them to have nuclear weapons). When I saw this, I thought it would be an interesting read and a chance to learn about the world's most secretive nation.

Summary

As the title suggests, the story follows a young girl's escape from North Korea—including the seven names she must assume to keep her safe during the journey. Unlike most of the memoirs of North Korean defectors, Ms. Lee's story isn't that of a disgruntled citizen searching for a better life. It is the story of a middle class teenager pushing boundaries and unknowingly setting her life on a course she never dreamed about.

What I Learned

North Korea actively uses propaganda to control their citizens' thinking, specially about western countries like the US. While the US doesn't particularly attempt to control our thoughts about particular countries, what we are taught (or not taught) has a profound impact on how we view each country. Before reading this book, when I heard "North Korea" I imagined a gray, police state where the people are miserable—essentially I imagined 1984. This book opened my eyes to the complexities of such a society. I've always known that perception changes your reality, but it never occurred to me that North Korea was so closed to the rest of the world that the people living there wouldn't even know there is a better life outside its borders.

Ms. Lee's family was actually one of the well off families in the country, reaping benefits such as special housing and extra food rationing. At the onslaught of a famine, known as The Arduous March in North Korea,[2] her family barely feels the impact. It is only chance experiences with those outside her family that lead her to realize something is happening. Ms. Lee's revelation that her home country isn't the greatest country in the world and that she has been lied to her whole life unfolds slowly. It is a reminder that the most efficient way to enslave someone is through the mind.

This book doesn't just teach you about North Korea, though. Ms. Lee spends roughly 10 years in China. Also a communist country, China has friendly relationship with North Korea. Refugees are not seen as people who need help, but as illegals who need to be sent back. If she had been caught in China, Ms. Lee would have been sent back to North Korea, possibly to her death. The journey to a country willing to help is perilously long. Many who escape have to travel from the North Korean-Chinese border into countries like Laos or Vietnam (of which it is still not guaranteed that they will be safely sent to South Korea). That is almost like driving from one coast to the other coast of the US. Imagine having absolutely nothing and needing to make your way from California to Atlanta without being detected.

Sanctions and Trade Wars

I've never been one to study policy concerning embargo or sanctions. However, reading about the famine that occurred in North Korea, I started to become curious. When we purposefully hurt a country's economy, it is the every day people that suffer, not the leadership. Think about the US: our senators and presidents have all well off, most are millionaires. In a catastrophe, it would be us that suffered, not them. Of course, even when humanitarian groups provide food for a place in need, how do you insure those who need it can receive it? I became much more interested in this topic after reading this book.

Book Quality

I found the book to be well written. I became invested in the characters and wanted to see what would happen. For those used to fiction, this book still reads as an interesting narrative.

Overall Thoughts

Overall I found this book to be deeply inspiring, heartbreaking, and eye opening. I highly recommend to anyone who wants to learn what other have gone through. It will definitely make you grateful for your life.

References and Footnotes

1. Thanks to COVID-19 I didn't physically go to a bookstore. I bought it online and downloaded an e-copy despite my love for physical books.
2. "North Korean Famine". Wikipedia; visited May 10, 2020

The Worst Day

Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, it got worse. In that worst day, though I looked for God, and I found Him, right beside me, working all things to His glory.

Video

Text Summary

Last Wednesday was the worst day I've had in recent memory. My A/C went out Tuesday night. I thought changing the filter might miraculously bring it back to life, so I tried that, only to wake up Wednesday and know that I had to call the A/C repairman. That meant I had to work from home Wednesday afternoon—that would be great except I was working on a crucial fix for a defect that was supposed to be in by Thursday afternoon and I really needed the support of people at work. So I'm home, in the heat, struggling to get this work done when the cramps began. I'm talking about the "I can't stand up or sit up straight" type of cramps. So now, I'm also trying not to look like a crazy person with the A/C guy in my house.

So I'm hot, frustrated, in pain...and of course hungry. I can't take medicine for the cramps on an empty stomach! But I didn't have any food in my fridge because I'm out of town this week and I didn't want to stock the fridge before leaving. So I order food. My order gets delayed. Then the driver got lost. 2 hours later, I still didn't have food.

By now the A/C guy is telling my I need a whole new unit and I'm cringing at the price I'm being quoted. I couldn't help but be angry. There I was trying to be a good person, trying to do the right things and everything was going wrong. What was God doing?

This is what God was doing:

1. If the A/C had gone out any later, I wouldn't have been able to get it fixed before I left for my trip. I either would have left my home in a state of no A/C or it would have broken while I was gone. My cat Bubbles is home alone for 2 days, and then my parents are going to go cat sit. If the A/C had broken in that time, she could have died.
2. I always have cramps, that's a given. but if they'd happened a day earlier or a day later, I would have had to take another day off work. Misery would have spread across multiple days
3. My fix made perfect sense. I still don't know why it didn't work, but yesterday, the higher ups said the defect isn't actually my fault and I shouldn't be writing code to mask/accommodate the fault of other apps. If my fix had worked, I would have proceeded to merge it, but now the company is working to actually fix the root problem.
4. The food... I asked God to help me with being patient. I think that's all there is to that. Or God trying to convince me not to order out so much.

God was there the whole time. He made sure the worst situation had the best outcome.

Fruit of the Spirit: Patience feat. Derrell (Part 2)

You mean to tell me I can’t just wake up more patient? Patience is like a six pack, you have to go to the gym, sweat a little, feel gross, and wake up in pain a few times before you can claim the honor. So maybe it takes two episodes to talk about, too.

Season 1 Episode 21

¹⁰Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;
¹¹Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;
¹²Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;
¹³Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality.
¹⁴Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not. Romans 12:10-14 CSB

Time
00:01:29	Ree:	Hey guys. Welcome back to the PSALMS to God podcast. Once again I have my friend Derrell here, and we're talking about patience. So this is the second part of the last episode. If you have not already listen to the first episode on patience, you will definitely want to check it out. I try not to do 2 part episodes where you actually need to listen to them in a certain order, but this time I think it's best if you listen to the first episode first and this one second, because there is some continuance of conversation and we probably will be referencing things from the previous episode since it was actually one conversation. But without further ado this is the rest of Darrell and I’s conversation about patience and what we've experienced concerning patience in life.
00:02:23	R:	So Derrell, let's continue our conversation on patience. Looking back, how do you feel about those injuries?
00:02:33	D:	Like just that fast... Like I said, the second I tore my knee, I thought I was done. I thought that was it. And I was like “Man, I spent my money. I invested all this time. I spent all this time away from my friends and family.” And to be chasing this one thing, and it’s possibly over. ‘Cause I thought I had torn my ACL, MCL, PCL.[1] Come to find out a meniscus is actually a very commonly torn ligament. It’s something runners tear all the time. Sometimes they can be back 2 weeks, 6 weeks. ‘Cause I had to have the surgery, my whole recovery period was 6 months, but I was up on my feet and walking after 2 weeks of surgery—from surgery. Actually I was walking a week after surgery. In 2 weeks they cleared me to go back to the gym and start working out again. Light stuff, but I could start working out again.
00:03:22	R:	It's better than nothing.
00:03:24	D:	So, when I say like patience is something that taught me. I had to have patience. But patience isn’t just about... Because some people think I need to be patient about—patient in traffic you know? Like sometimes there’s gonna be traffic, you have to have patience. Because one thing people say, “I really got to get to such and such.” Well, what if this traffic is keeping you from getting into a collision up the road? How often do people think about that? Or how about when you leave the house but you say, “Aw man, my left my bag at the house. Now I have to turn around.” Well, take the time. Be patient. Go back and get it, because what if the reason why you left that, and you had to go back was a drunk driver was going to be caught speeding through a red light you were going to be at and that could’ve hit you? You know. So, when you think about things like that, like sometimes patience is for the virtue, and sometimes people want the now, now, now. When you gotta let things—just take your time.
00:04:34	D:	My dream didn’t just come out of nowhere. I actually thought about it. I sat down. I looked at my finances. I looked at how am I going to get to and from. It took me working from job to job to get to a job that will allow me where I can work from 6-2 and then have the rest of the afternoon off to go wrestle. A lot of jobs don’t allow people to work from 6 to 2pm&mash;6am to 2pm—
00:05:01	R:	You right![2]
00:05:02	D:	My sister tells me all the time that’s really unheard of. But I have a great job, that's flexible, that allows me to do what I need to do for wrestling. So in the grand scheme of things, all the pieces fell into place at the right time. At God’s timing—He has perfect timing.—
00:05:23	R:	Yes! God is great at that.
00:05:25	D:	😂Yeah, like that whole saying of “I’m not going to be there when you want me, but I’ll be there right on time.” And when I tell you, every place along this journey this journey of wrestling, He’s been right on time. It's been an amazing ride thus far and like my wrestling career has just taken off as far as being on TV, but I’ve just been truly amazed at how I had dreamed of being one of those guy that I saw on TV and here I am tomorrow—April 27th—I'm going to be on Ring of Hour TV.
00:06:02	R:	Yeah!
00:06:04	D:	😂 So it’s just, patience. I learned a lot about patience. And you learn a lot about patience in even with wrestling. When you first start you’re low man on the totem pole[3] and you have to put in—in the business it’s called paying your dues.
00:06:24	R:	Yeah, that's true everywhere. You got to pay your dues everywhere.
00:02:28	D:	For those people who don’t understand what paying dues means, if you understand Greek life then you understand having to be humble and having to be a neophyte at some point in time, and paying your dues. So, or like if you’re on like a varsity team, like in high school. Or I don’t know, you were in the band, so I'm pretty sure freshmen had to go get the water.
00:06:55	R:	Yeah, rookie status.
00:06:58	D:	Yeah, so everybody understands paying your dues. So in wrestling, paying your dues means showing up early to unload the truck, build the ring, set out chairs, do security during the show. Once the show’s over, break down everything, pack up the truck, go back to wherever the ring is stored, unload the ring, and do it all again next weekend—and have a smile on your face when you’re doing it.
00:07:54	R:	Exactly.
00:07:27	D:	So, and once again, a lot of guys don't make it because they don’t have the patience to deal with that. They just want to come, throw me in the ring and I want to look great. And it’s not that simple. You have to pay your dues; that’s just a part of patience. I had a lot of patience. I did it with a smile on my face. I actually was head of security while I was paying my dues. So I don't know how I got put in that position. It was just, I didn't think the way it was being run was being run correctly, so I stepped up and when I did it there were no more issues. So I don't know if
00:08:07	R:	Hey, that means you did something right!
00:08:09	D:	Well, you know, my pastor always says if something bothers you, then that’s your calling and you go do it.
00:08:15	R:	This is true.
00:08:16	D:	So at that time I was like, this isn’t being done right, so let me take it. But yeah, that’s my testimony on patience and where it’s gotten me thus far.
00:08:29	R:	Yeah! Thank you for sharing that. You know I struggle.
00:08:32	D:	No problem.
00:08:33	R:	I struggle with patience. One of the things I realized... So before I do each of my episodes, particularly on the Fruit of the Spirit, I look up like all the references to that Fruit of the Spirit in the Bible, and I'd like to tell y’all that I read every single one of them but that would be a bald-faced lie.
00:08:56	D+R:	😂
00:08:58	R:	But, I read as many as I can. And when I looked up the stuff on patience. You know, of course a lot of the stuff that you were talking, about about how going through tribulations and having endurance is part of building character and part of how God gets us where we need to be. It also aligned our goals with His timing. But one of the ideas crazy things that I realized is that as a looking at the Fruit of the Spirit, I felt like patience—whooo! Excuse me!—I felt like patience was the backbone. Like one of the things I've been noticing is that they’re, I don’t want to say interchangeable, but in order to have one of them you need the other. So for instance, like in order to love somebody, you have to be patient with them. But in order to be patient with them you have to love them. And so, like almost all of the Fruit of the Spirit, you can go through and see this correlation. Like in order to have joy you have to have patience; in order to have patience you kind of have to have joy, ‘cause you have to be content at the state that you're in in the moment.
00:10:16	R:	And I realized that—I know at least speaking for myself, probably for other people—the reason we struggle with each of these Fruits of the Spirit, particularly probably self-control, is because we don't have patience. And when I thought about it like that you know it it made me realize how important it is for me to slow down. And you know, one of the things you mentioned about like pride. We were talking about like what you thought you wanted. I think that ties into patience, as well. Like it's our pride that keeps us from wanting to wait, ‘cause we just want it now, and it's like a selfish instinct.
00:11:06	R:	And I I just thought it was interesting, because when I look at things... Like when I first started, I was making a list of things that I was good at being patient with and things I was bad at being patient with. And then I started to realize that there were still correlations between the two, and that it's really how quickly do I lose my patience. You know, you already know I am a person, I am guilty of road rage.
00:11:44	D:	😂
00:11:47	R:	It's sad, because it's not really about getting to the place. It's not usually like oh they're driving too slow and I want to get there, or anything like that. For me it's usually about the principle of the matter. So I almost always get road rage when I feel like somebody is in the wrong, but they're coming for me. So you have the person that cuts you off in traffic and then they honk at you, and I'm like “Why are you honking at me? You cut me off!” and then all of a sudden I'm like super angry. And you know I think when you said you know that your pastor said when you see something wrong or something bothers you, that’s you know you're calling. I feel like I just have this passion for like the principle of the thing. That's one of the like the number one things that like when I see people doing something that's clearly wrong, and then like being boastful about it, that it drives me up the wall.
00:12:53	D+R:	😂
00:12:55	R:	And I often wonder. Like I feel like sometimes we…Like there's the lack of patience, but like you shared your whole journey for becoming a wrestler. And I feel like sometimes we just want to take the easy way out, and so we see things that bother us, and we think like “Oh I should do XYZ. This is what it would take to fix it.” And then we’re like “Oh, that's a lot! I don't know if I can do that!” And so we try to stay back. But I think that that also makes us even more impatient, if that makes any sense. ‘Cause I feel like, because we're not fulfilling the purpose that God is calling us to, there's like this wrestling inside of us that shortens our patience even more.
00:13:57	D:	Right. Wow that’s awesome. That’s an interesting way to put that.
00:14:04	R:	Yeah. That's what I've been coming to the realization in the past couple of weeks.
00:14:09	D:	To me, I just think if everybody took the time to actually practice what they preach about patience, the world might be a little better. But like, this is like a big thing. So I attend a mega church, and every week when we get to the benediction, not even before we get to benediction. When Pastor gets to altar call, those who are already saved and already baptized or who just don’t want to be in church any more, get up and start leaving. 1 - because they don't want to get caught up in all the traffic. It’s a mega church and of course, once church let’s out, everybody trying to get out. And so traffic gets backed up trying to get out the Church. But, however, altar call is a time in which people are making the decision on whether or not to accept Christ into their life as their Lord and Savior, or they want to be baptized, or join the church. And the thing that he says all the time is, “At one point in time, you were the person who walked up here”—
00:15:32	R:	Yeah.
00:15:33	D:	The —“and when you did there was somebody in your row clapping and saying “Amen,” and encouraging you to come along. So how dare you get up and leave at this... Which is probably one of the most important times of this person’s life.
00:15:49	R:	Yeah can you imagine?
00:15:50	D:	And you’re just leaving! Huh?
00:15:52	R:	I was going to say, can you imagine if like somebody was like “Oh I want to get baptized,” and Peter’s like “OK, come, let's go get baptized,” and Paul's like, “I got places to be,” and he just bounced?
00:16:04	D:	😂 Right, Paul’s said I gotta go move my camel, cause I don’t have time to be out here with y’all no more.
00:16:11	D+R:	😂
00:16:16	D:	So when, stuff like that, like why can't we just be patient and wait? Like we're all, we all have the same goal. We all want to leave, but It’s not like the parking lot’s not going to get empty at some point in time. So stuff like that. It’s like we put our mindset of priorities in the wrong order. Why not stay and support our brothers and sisters who are trying to make that decision within themselves. When yet they’re being distracted, ‘cause you know, you got to pick up your purse, pick up your jacket, get your Bible. If you got kids, you got to get all their stuff together. You’re making a bunch of noise trying to go one way, but you trying to listen to Pastor make his plea for your soul. 😂
00:17:00	D:	That’s just one aspect. When you’re on your job, how many times have you seen a coworker, you know, they not acting themselves or they might be in tears. But you see them and you keep walking. I don't want to get involved. Well, what would happen if you took the time to just say, “Hey I don’t know what you’re going through, but I'm going to pray for you.” You know, and you might not want to get in their business and say “what’s wrong?” ‘Cause you could open up a whole ‘nother door. Just say I’m going to pray for you. You know, and you never know how that might change somebody's lives, but because we're all so, “I ain't got time to deal with that today.” You might have left that coworker sitting there. And then, but you don’t know what your prayer, what you just saying “I'll pray for you,” or “let's pray, so that you can get through this,” or that “God gives you the strength to get through this.” You know, you never know what that would do to somebody, or what that could do for somebody. And I just think that we're all in a rush, and we’re also focus on me, me, me, me, that sometimes God wants you to take time, be patient, and care for somebody else.
00:18:15	R:	Absolutely. I've definitely been trying to strengthen my patience. One of the things I think for me... So one of the things that I think, I don't remember who told me this, but somebody once told me that when you ask God for something, sometimes you got to go through a little pain to get to it.
0018:40	D:	Oh man!
00:18:41	R:	I know you go to the gym, so you're very aware of the saying “No pain, no gain.”
00:18:47	D:	Correct
00:18:48	R:	And so we were talking about patience and they were telling me, you know, like if you're asking God for patience, He got to give you something to give you patience. Like you don't just wake up one day and suddenly you’re patient. Like you got to go through the struggle to develop the patience.
00:19:04	D:	Right. It’s taught. It’s not understood right away.
00:19:13	R:
Photocredit: Unsplash.com/ABruno Nascimento

And you know for me, my journey through grad school was a lot like your journey to wrestling—minus the physical injuries, but I feel like I got some like mental and emotional injuries going through grad school. And you know that was like one aspect of my life where I think I really developed patience in terms of like education, learning, my career... I learned a tremendous respect for people who are homeless, people who are struggling, because of the nature of my research. But I didn't necessarily get patience with interacting with people. Being a computer scientist— Y’all, funny story! I also have an undergraduate degree in Mathematical Sciences, that I also do not use.[4]

00:20:07	D+R:	😂
00:20:13	R:	Sad day for Mathematical Science. But it's a great tool; it was a building block. But you know in computer science, you don’t necessarily learn or cultivate patience with people. And so one of the things that I felt called to do recently was to help with the youth at the church. People were calling for help with the youth, and I know what it means to have people of varying ages with their hands into the youth. So there's there's something to be said about having someone that's closer to your age that's been through what you've been through but has like a little bit of wisdom but isn't like your parents’ age, that can kind of like talk to you and do things. And so I agreed to be a mentor. How I went from being a mentor to being a teacher. I don't know how that happened, but somehow that happened.
00:21:21	R:	And you know when I first said “OK,” I was like “I don't know if I can do this. I don't know if I have the patience. I don't know if I have the skill-set. Like I don't really know about this.” But the more I go into it, the more I realize late “Oh Shiree, you got to go through it and succeed.” One, you have to succeed because these are the children. These are the youth. These are the young minds that are coming in to Christ, and if you screw this up. you done screwed up big-time. Like you can't screw up somebody else's salvation. And then I was like God is calling you to do this, so you got to learn patience. And like in order to learn it, you will have to go through it.
00:22:08	R:	So, you know, it's a thing. But it's also a blessing, because I found that, you know, just like in your story. There are valleys, but after every valley, God will give you a mountain. And you know, sometimes I'll be sitting in that class like I don't... I don't know what's going on. I don't know how to take control of this class. I don't know if I should like go zero to a hundred, or if I should go back all the way off. I don't know how to handle the situation, but then like one of the students will do something or say something or they'll take control of class, and I'm just like mystified by how things fall together and how things happen. And I'm just like “Wow. So God is here and He's handling the situation.” All I really gotta do is show up and trust Him. And that's that's the definition of patience just show up and trust God.
00:23:07	D:	Absolutely.
00:23:08	R:	😂
00:23:10	D:	At this point, absolutely. That’s all you have to live by. Just show up and trust God. I don’t know, you know. I’m thankful for where I am. It was a complete surprise, for me, but I know that God is working and He has a plan. So at this point, I just literally show up and trust God with all that I do.
00:23:36	D:	Absolutely. So thank you so much for coming. I know your time is precious! Thank you for coming on the show and sharing all of his knowledge about wis—ah, wisdom. I was trying to say wisdom and knowledge at the same time, got all kind of tongue-tied. But yeah thank you for sharing knowledge and wisdom about patience and for sharing your testimony.
00:24:07	D:	No thank you for having me.
00:24:10	R:	Of course! Before I let you go, do you have any final words to share with the listeners?
00:24:21	D:	The thing God wants you to experience, He’'ll put you through a test to see whether you pass it. And whether you pass it or not, you will be tested with that thing time and time again. So if the thing you need to learn is patience, He might test you today, and if you pass it today OK cool. But then tomorrow, will you pass that test again? You know, that's kind of His way of like building upon your foundation, your level of patience. You now people will say “I’ve reached my highest level of patience today.” Alright, well, how can we get another level added to your patience?
00:25:07	D:	No matter what it is—whether you’re dealing with anger, whether you’re dealing with trying to forgive people—you're going through something now, that doesn’t mean you’re not going to go through something even worse later on, but you’re going through this now. Trying to work on forgiving people because you’re going to need this foundation of forgiveness down the road. And that just applies to anything that He's trying to teach you. So if it's patience, patience isn't just going to be applied to your life right now. It's being taught to you right now, because a foundation needs to be built. That way, later on down the road, you can fall back on what you already learned to help you through that experience.
00:25:56	R:	I feel that.
00:25:59	D:	I hope that helps.
00:26:01	R:	Yeah. I love it. Thank you
00:26:04	D:	You are welcome.
00:26:07	R:	Alright listeners, thank you for listening, and I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope that will make you think about patience. Don't forget to like and subscribe. And I will see you guys in the next episode. Bye

Standing Still

I used to stand still...
Admire the soft blades of grass,
And wish life would pause in that moment.

I used to stand still.
Unwilling to look past heavy clouds
And I wish it was the same as racing forward—

But all the while I was moving
Spinning forward in time—
Growing into this person I've become

And I wish to never be still again.

Photocredit: Unsplash.com/Camila Cordeiro

Why it Matters: A Discourse on Why We Won't "Shut Up" About Being Black in America

I was having a normal conversation about how working for pennies inspired me to do better in school, and in this I was offering the proof of the pudding in the story of how I tried to flunk myself out of honors my freshman year of high school, but was often the highest scorer on assignments all the years after my job experience. That's how it started. In explaining why I wanted out of honors, I said I hated my high school. So, the person asked for clarification, and I gave it. Some of why I hated my high school was resentment—I wanted to go to the high school everyone else in my family went to—but alot of it was the racial tension and the feeling of being isolated. Which brought about the question "why do you feel isolated from white people?"

Down the Rabbit Hole

As I pointed out to the speaker, that's a broad generalization. I can name several instances where I felt more comfortable and more "at home" with a white person than a black person. The conversation about my high school was talking about a specific group of white people. Further, it wasn't just a racial divide, but an economic divide, as well. So, the person—let's call him John Doe—corrects himself to say that I seem "normal" and he can't see why I would have a problem fitting in with the people in my class. Mind you, he started to use the word assimilate and caught himself, but that didn't stop that ideology from trickling into his philosophy. John might not have said assimilate, but it was obvious he meant assimilate...

Regardless, having a surface conversation with people is not the same as being friends with people or making a connection. Yes, I can have polite conversation with people all day (and I mean that literally, I'm a talker!), but that doesn't mean I feel connected to the people I'm talking to. The conversation John and I had is a prime example of it. While my classmates were hooked on Friends and Seinfeld, I was watching Living Single and Girlfriends. What makes these seemingly minuscule differences isolating is that the mentality of many people is their ideas are what's normal and everyone else is abnormal. The fact that I enjoyed different things was "odd" simply because I didn't like what they liked. Because they had never heard of the shows I watched or the music I listened to, and I didn't like the shows they watched or the music they listened to, there had to be something wrong with me. Which brings us back to the "white is normal" mentality.

"Black People Basically Didn't Exist Before the 1960's"

As I continued to explain the bombardment of white-only history, John repeatedly stated that before the 60's black people were oppressed, so there wasn't anything to teach. Little did he know that he proved my point exactly; we've been brainwashed to think the all black people did before the civil rights movement is be slaves. Yet, Blacks in the North were free; they might not have been treated well but they were free. Compound that with the fact that they don't teach any history about after the 60's, and you have a whole nation of people who think blacks have never done anything. We even think we never did anything! I'll save the ramifications of this kind of teaching for my book...

Instead, I offered the example of Jan Matzeliger, who created a machine to speed up the making of shoes.[1] Of course as a lover of shoes, this would be the first person who came to mind. John responded that this wasn't remarkable, that people like Thomas Edison invented the light bulb. Well, you walk around in shoes everyday, don't you? I assure you I spend more time using my shoes than light bulbs (especially if its sunny out!). Further more, you're comparing a man who was denied nothing, inventing something versus a man who lived in a era when it was illegal for blacks to learn how to read! Even under oppression black people were succeeding in the occupations typically ascribed to whites of that era (inventors, writers, senators, etc.). Not the first black man to be a U.S. senator (Hiram Revels), but the second black man to become a U.S. senator, Blanche K. Bruce, was born a slave. What's more, they both became senators in Mississippi, i.e. the deep South.[2][3][4] You have Garrett Morgan, who invented the gas mask and the traffic light—with only a 6th grade education; Benjamin Banneker, a self-taught mathematician and astronomer; Thomas Jennings, who holds a patent for a dry cleaning process; Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, who received an M.D. in 1883 (only 20 years after the abolishment of slavery), founded a hospital, and performed the first open heart surgery in 1893.[5][6][7][8] Black people have always contributed to a society that sees them as worthless. By suggesting that these inventions are somehow not worthy of mentioning in a classroom and continually arguing that we didn't do anything "remarkable" before the 60's only follows that same trend.

Black Literature

As we continued the discussion, the talk shifted to written work. During this part of the conversation, John admitted he didn't know who James Baldwin was. I knew he didn't know who Baldwin was, because "before the 60's blacks were oppressed and didn't do anything," despite the fact that Baldwin's Go Tell It On the Mountain was published to critical acclaim in 1953.[9] While we read Poe, Hawthorne, Thoreau, Whitman, Fitzgerald, and Hemingway, black classics were completely ignored. What about Baldwin, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, Ralph Ellison, Frances Harper?[10][11][12][13] Phillis Wheatley was the first published black female poet, and her works were published in 1773.[14] 1773, folks! That's almost 100 years before the Emancipation Proclamation. Jupiter Hammon, a slave born in 1711 is known to have published something in Connecticut in 1760![15] To let John and my English teachers tell it, we weren't doing anything before 1960, though.

John countered my dismay at the lack of black literature in school with shock, because he spent a whole semester doing a play about one book by a black person. Wow, one whole book. From elementary to middle to high through college, you can only mention one book you've read by a black person and you can't even tell me the name of the book or who wrote it? #AllLivesMatter, though, right? I can't even count the number of books I was required to read that were written by and about whites, but I can name at least 10 without straining myself. As if boasting that one book did black literature justice wasn't evident of the disconnect John had, he confirmed it by proudly remembering that the main character's catchphrase was "yes'em." *side-eye* As in, the black way of saying yes ma'am or yes sir? As in, what black people had to say to whites in the south to avoid being lynched... I don't know what he read, but I'm convinced he didn't read legitimate black literature, which is probably why he thinks black people were sitting idly, wallowing in their oppression all that time before the civil rights movement. I need him to at least get on the level of The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (or anything by Morrison, really) or Invisible Man by Ellison. I mean, really, there are countless influential black authors...

And the discussion on black literature didn't stop there... When discussing instances where students deliberately read the n-word from a book when then teacher had gone through lengths to blot out the word, John said blotting out the n-word in a book "ruined" it. Did he stop to wonder how many books he read that demeaned white people? Without even thinking I can name at least 4 books we had to read in school that referred to blacks as n*****s (and not just on one page), but even as I think, I can't recall a single book that uses pejorative language to describe whites (and we'll leave the fact that everyone else is just absent all together for another conversation). It's easy to be ok with something when it's not you that's being shamed. It's even easier to be ok with it, when you've never had the whole class turn to stare and view your shame because you were the only person in the room that this shame applied to.

The Concept of Being Black

As the conversation continued down this horrible and deep rabbit hole, so many random topics of discussion came up, among them was the concept of being black. To someone who has no idea what it's like to be a minority, maybe it does seem like we wake up thinking about our "blackness," but that's simply not the case. I didn't define myself as a black person, the white people around me did.

I didn't know I was black until a white person told me. Why do you think a four year old white person child came up to me on the playground and said "you're black and I'm white," as opposed to me walking up to her saying "you're white and I'm black?" You can argue that it's natural for children to be curious about differences, but the fact is no one in my family thought "white" skin vs. "black" skin was something worth noting. None of us ever came home and asked our parents why the white kids at school were white. If this child was simply curious about differences, it was because in her world, "white" was normal and my blackness was abnormal—again with the idea that white is the norm. What's left to wonder, however, is what her parents taught her that she felt it necessary to point it out to me as though it meant something... If this were the only experience I'd ever had related to my "blackness," I would gladly sweep it under the rug as an anomaly, but this experience is what every day life has been as black person. After all, it was only shortly after that that I learned the n-word at a traffic light when the old man in the car next to ours pointed at us and told his grad-daughter (also about 4 or 5 years old), "those are n*****s." It is in rare spaces that I am able to forget that I am what society calls "black."

Loss of Individuality

I shared the follow story with John. With a group of "friends," I played a spinoff game of charades where the object was to guess famous people (real or fictional). Each person put in maybe 6 people, and we took turns drawing a name from a hat (or a bowl, whatever). I put in superheroes like batman, spiderman, and magneto. Someone else decided to put in every rapper they could think of. After the third or fourth rapper came out of the hat, someone said to me "C'mon, you know we don't know these people why'd you put all of these rappers in?" Now you can argue that the inclusion of rappers was new to the game and since it was the first time I played with them, the logical conclusion was that I placed the names in. What you can't excuse is that someone took that opportunity to place those names in the hat. Why didn't the person put those names in before? Furthermore, when I said I didn't put them in, that person never said "hey, I put them in there." Years later, the people in the group remember it as the time I bombarded them with rap artists despite the fact that I told them I didn't do it.

Out of this experience, all John wanted to know was what's so bad about people thinking I listen to rap. It's not about rap. Truthfully, I don't really listen to, but there's nothing inherently wrong with rap. It's about not being allowed to have an identity outside of my blackness. It's about the fact that even when you interact with people frequently, even after two years of hanging out with these people, they still associate "black" stereotypes to me. None of these people bothered to crack their image of what a black person is supposed to be like to realize that I don't know the lyrics to most of the rap songs by the rappers they named, because my iTunes is mostly 90's R&B, Gospel, Jazz, and Classical. The issue isn't what type of music I do or don't listen to, it's about the fact that people don't bother to get to know you for you. This is a primary factor in feeling alienated as a black person in a room full of white people. Yes, I can talk to people and have conversations, but many times those people aren't actually listening to my side of the conversation. They aren't friends, they're acquaintances who pretend to be friends.

Black Hair

As I tried to explain this point further, I mentioned the time someone told me I looked better with straight hair. I didn't bother to mention the time I was walking in the mall and someone told me I was "too pretty to be black" or the infamous line dark skinned girls get: "you're pretty for a dark skinned girl." He wanted to turn it into everything other than what it was. He asked if I would get mad if someone told me I looked nice today, suggesting that implies I didn't look nice the day before. When I pointed out that saying you look nice today is not the same as you look better today, he claimed I was playing with words. Imagine you meet someone for the first time. Perhaps you think they're attractive. Depending on the situation and your personality, you're not necessarily going to walk up and say "hey, you're gorgeous." If you become friends with the person, you're going to see them all the time, their attractiveness will become normal to you, and by the time you're comfortable around them you'll probably forget to mention it or you've subtly hinted at it to the point you don't need to mention it. If something changes, say their hair, their clothes, etc., it's a sudden difference that you are complimenting. It doesn't mean that you prefer that difference to what you previously saw. I have plenty of shirts in my closet that are the same except for the color; I couldn't figure out which one I liked better so I bought both. It's the same concept; I like both, I don't have a preference. When you explicitly say "better" you are stating a preference. He kept trying to come up with other examples, but I shared this example for a reason.

What your preference is about makeup or how I dress is irrelevant; what you tell me about your preference in black hair is historical. The reason black people started to straighten their hair is not because we just thought it looked nice. Our natural hair was seen as unkempt, unprofessional, and later a sign of a revolutionary or black panther (power to Angel Davis #blackfistsalute). There are still occupations that require you to straighten your hair.[23] On top of bowing to conformity (assimilating as he slipped and said early in the conversation), when the Africans were brought from Africa to the U.S., they were stripped of their cultural heritage. They weren't allowed to speak their native tongues, they weren't allowed to practice their cultural habits/customs/etc. One of the things lost was how to care for our hair. Many of us straighten our hair because we don't know how to deal with curly hair. Even for whites with curly hair, this is not something taught in cosmetology classes.[24][25] For some blacks this maybe as simple as passing a flat iron over their hair, but for most of us this means chemically altering our hair. It has been suggested that Black women have a higher instances of fibroids due to the chemical relaxers we put in our hair.[26] At 27, I was told I have 2 fibroids. I haven't relaxed my hair since I was 22, just 5 years prior to this diagnosis. When I did get relaxers, I got the "Just for Me" kiddie version only 3 times a year. Most people relax their hair every 6-8 weeks; that's about twice as often as I did. Relaxers are known, without a doubt, to cause chemical burns and damage the hair.[27]

Jennifer Freeman as Claire Kyle on "My Wife and Kids

The indoctrination that we should alter our natural hair is such that I didn't know I had curly hair until I was in my senior year of high school. I had never seen my hair in its natural state before, and even then it really wasn't my natural state because it was relaxed. I went to several different stylists trying to copy the curly look sported by Jennifer Freeman. Not one of them ever thought to tell me to go natural; every single one of them relaxed my hair then tried to curl it with a curling iron.

I was in graduate school before I realized that I was burning the curls out of my hair. When I stopped, I didn't know if I was going to have the curls I was aiming for (I don't) or if I was going to have a "nappy" fro, but I was resolved to love either. I ended up somewhere in between. My black sisters who've undergone this process (and it's not an easy process, but that's a whole 'nother post) and come out with type 4 hair have often been met with the rudest comments about having "slave" hair or that "natural isn't for everyone," when their hair is just as beautiful as anyone else's. Black hair has never been appreciated or welcome, because black people have never been appreciated or welcome; we've always been considered inferior, this is just a manifestation of that sentiment. On the spectrum of curly hair, the closer you are to a "typical" afro texture, the less acceptance you will find.

When I debuted my unrelaxed hair at home, people thought I'd lost my mind. It's not just white people who've been brainwashed to think we're inferior, we've been brainwashed to believe it! My little cousins wanted to know when I would revert back to my "real" hair, because like me at 7 years old, they had never seen their natural hair. They thought straight hair was normal; again, white equals normal, black equals abnormal. Little black girls (and boys) around the Americas are raised to think their hair isn't good enough because society promotes European standards of beauty. That's not ok, and when you say to me "you look better with straight hair", all you're doing is promoting and reinforcing white supremacy.

The History of Being Black

The root of almost every issue lies in history; it lies in the subconscious programming we receive daily and then exude as though it's "normal" and "ok." John's first reaction was not to acknowledge that at this point in time we should not be experiencing racial discrimination and injustice, but to compare racial discrimination to discrimination of men with long hair. In his attempt to belittle the experience of racial injustice, he didn't even think through the issue enough to realize that people are in complete control of the length of their hair. I'm not saying that it's right to assume a man with long hair is this way or that way, but he knows the stereotypes associated with whatever hairstyle he chooses and he is free to choose to present himself to the world with or without long hair. If at any point he decides that is not the image he wants people to have of him, he can change. I cannot change the color of my skin, nor should I have to. That would be the very definition of white supremacy.

As I explained this, the point still didn't click for John; instead he changed his example to being a short man. Short men are not being seen as threatening and thugs causing people to overreact and shoot them. Just this week an autistic black teenager who was participating in a cross country meet—I repeat he was running in a cross country race, therefore, he had on a cross country uniform—was attacked by a random man who "thought he was going to mug him." This man got out of his car—I don't know about you, but if I think I'm about to be mugged and I'm in my car, my reaction is to lock the door and/or drive off—and pushed the teen to the ground. On top of that, no charges are being brought against the man who admits he pushed the teen to the ground.[16] Just today, a black church in Greenville, Mississippi was not only vandalized with the words "Vote Trump," it was set on fire.[17] Are people out burning down the homes and worship places of short men? White supremacists have been burning black churches, cities, and businesses since the end of slavery; and if you didn't have a building for them to burn, they were satisfied to simply burn you. Two of the most prominent black owned and operated cities of the United States—Rosewood, FL and Greenwood, OK (otherwise known as Black Wallstreet)—were ransacked and destroyed while the inhabitants were massacred by white supremacists.[18][19][20] Do people follow short men around shopping malls assuming they're going to steal? As a short man, when you are out searching for an apartment or in a store do people remark that the area or object you're seeking to purchase is out of your price range without knowing anything about you? The only complaint John cited about the plight of short men was that they are less likely to get matched on online dating websites; guess what, so are black women and men.[21][22] He asserted that he gets talked down to because he's short; guess what, so do I (for being black, female, and looking 17). But, on top of being undesirable and spoken down to, I am subjected to countless consequences that affect my day to day life, simply because I'm Black. I get a whole new, made up identity that casts me as a single mother on welfare listening to rap not knowing who my baby's father is and eating fried chicken, meanwhile there's a group of people, some of whom actually hold positions of power (re: Donald Trump might actually become president), that hates me and/or thinks I'm from an inferior species...

Bucking the Status Quo

John was so content with the status quo, he couldn't grasp the fact that it's not about being PC, it's not about being offended, it's not about changing someone's preference about what type of hair they like. It's about educating people that white does not equal normal. It's about educating people about the history of why we have these preferences. He admitted himself that he had no idea about the history of black hair (yeah, because the education system only teaches you the white side of history). I bet he doesn't know who Madame CJ Walker is either; she was the first black woman in the U.S. to become a millionaire—self-made and before the 1920's.

Instead of understanding the why's of the issue, he conflated fact and opinion. He tried to suggest, going back to his short man issue, that "facts" were that being tall is more attractive. No, popular opinion holds that being tall is more attractive. That doesn't make it true, and that doesn't make it right. He was all about "just dealing with it" but that's exactly how things stay stagnant. White people have been telling blacks to "just deal with it" since they drug us over here. Blacks are slaves that's just how it is, deal with it. Blacks get lynched, just stay in your place and deal with it. Blacks get a subpar education, just deal with it. Blacks are lazy, just deal with it (Donald Trump is reported to have said this dozy).[28] Blacks are criminals, that's why police shoot you, just deal with it.

The ultimate definition of oppression and white supremacy is you telling me to bury my feelings because it makes you uncomfortable. You don't want me to talk about the issues that affect blacks because you don't want to trade in a normalcy that promotes white supremacy. You want me to be quiet, because you don't like hearing that you've lived your whole life unaware. You want me to "just deal with it," because you don't want to admit that America is over it's head in racial problems, that the America you've been taught is so great and so awesome has only taken a tiny step from where it was in the 60's. You don't want to hear that simply refraining from calling me a n***** is not enough. Well, you picked the wrong one.

Photocredit: Bettmann/CORBIS

I will speak out, I will shout, I will argue, I will protest, and I will fight. I'm not going to simply disappear. I am not the slave that simply got up and did her chores hoping not to get whipped; I am the slave that had an "R" seared into my flesh because I wouldn't stop running.[29] I am not the black woman who sucked it up after a long day of work and stood up so that whites could have a seat on the bus; I am Rosa Parks getting arrested because I refused to stand. I am not bowing to conformity to be acceptable for a television audience; I am Angela Davis wearing my not-quite-afro wild and free, I am Viola Davis taking my wig off on prime time TV. I am not the person who gives a talk and glosses over the most influential moments of my life to appease the white audience, I am Nicki Giovanni getting on stage expressing the truth of the experience, I am Michelle Obama telling you I live in a house slaves built. I am Beyoncé singing about afros and negro noses at the Super Bowl. I am Katherine Johnson, a human computer capable of sending people to the moon. I am Ruby Bridges, by myself in a sea of white faces. You can love it or hate it, listen or ignore, but the time has come for you to just deal with it.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.MLK Jr.

References

1. The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "Jan Ernst Matzeliger: Dutch Inventor. Encyclopædia Britannica. 2016
2. The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "Hiram R. Revels: American Politician and Educator. Encyclopædia Britannica. 2016
3. The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "Blanch K. Bruce: United States Senator. Encyclopædia Britannica. 2016
4. "Breaking New Ground -- African American Senators. United States Senate. 2016
5. "Garrett Augustus Morgan". PBS. 2016
6. The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "Benjamin Banneker: American Scientist". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2016
7. Bellis, Mary. "Thomas Jennings, the First African-American Patent Holder". About.com. 2016
8. "African American Medical Pioneers: Daniel Hale Williams (1856-1931)". PBS. 2003
9. The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "James Baldwin: American Author". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2016
10. The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "Frederick Douglass: United States Official and Diplomat". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2016
11. Rudwick, Elliott. "W. E. B. Du Bois: American Sociologist and Social Reformer". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2016
12. The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "Ralph Ellison: American Author and Educator". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2016
13. The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "Frances E.W. Harper: American Author and Social Reformer". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2016
14. The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "Phillis Wheatley: American Poet". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2016
15. Wallace, George. "Jupiter Hammon, the Father of African-American Poetry". About.com. June 25, 2015
16. Schladebeck, Jessica."Syracuse teen with autism assaulted during cross country meet — ‘You can’t tell me that it wasn’t because my son was black’. NY Daily News. October 31, 2016
17. Woodston, Cleve R., Jr. "‘Vote Trump’ painted on wall of burned-out black church in Mississippi". The Washington Post. November 2, 2016
18. Glenza, Jessica. "Rosewood massacre a harrowing tale of racism and the road toward reparations". The Guardian. January 3, 2016
19. Pickens, Josie. "The Destruction of Black Wall Street". Ebony. May 31, 2013
20. Wormser, Richard. "The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow: Tulsa Riot (1921)". PBS. 2002
21. Rudder, Christian. "Race and Attraction, 2009 – 2014". OK Cupid. September 15, 2014
22. Gaynor, Garren Keith. "Study: Black Women are the Least Desired Dating Block [Video]. Centric. April 10, 2014
23. Callahan, Yesha. "NC News Anchor Questions Natural Hair in the Workplace and Advises Intern to Straighten Her Hair. The Root. September 17, 2015
24. Noelliste, Leila. "Why Are Beauty Schools Ignoring Natural Hair?. Clutch Magazine. 2016
25. Tyra. "What Cosmetology School Did NOT Teach Me About My Black Hair. Black Girl Long Hair. April 4, 2014
26. Wise, Lauren A.; Palmer; Julie R.; Reich, David; Cozier, Yvette C.; Rosenberg, Lynn. "Hair Relaxer Use and Risk of Uterine Leiomyomata in African-American Women. American Journal of Epidemiology. September 2011
27. Mayse, Kathy. "What Are the Dangers of Relaxing Hair?. LiveStrong. December 23, 2015
28. D'Antonio, Michael. "Is Donald Trump Racist? Here's What the Record Shows". Fortune. June 7, 2016
29. Costa, Tom. "Runaway Slaves and Servants in Colonial Virginia". Encyclopedia Virginia. January 29, 2013
30. Davis, Julie Hirschfeld. "Yes, Slaves Did Help Build the White House. NY Times. July 27, 2016
31. Ramsey, Franchesca. "Her Character Was Only Supposed To Remove Her Makeup Before Bed. Then Viola Davis Made It Real.. Upworthy. November 6, 2014
32. Ruffo, Julian. "Viola Davis Addresses a 'Sticky Racial Situation': Stylists 'Don't Know What to Do With My Hair'. People. August 3, 2016

Real Experiences for BHM 2016: Surviving in the Early 1900's

This black history month, I want to do something a little different. I think one of the problems in our country is that Black history is synonymous with the past and with slavery to most. I really want to go into a more personal level and highlight people making a difference everyday. People I've met, talked to, and been inspired by. So, this year for my daily spotlights I want to brag on y'all. FYI: if I don't post about you, it's not because you aren't awesome, it's because there's only 29 days in February, and I'm a graduate student so I can't just post until run out of friends and family...

My black history month hero this year (and every year really) is a pair: Howard Hughes (not that Howard Hughes) and Iella Dewitt Hughes, also known as Papa and Granny to me and my cousins. Born in 1903 and 1915, respectively, they lived through some of the most dangerous eras of Southern history. Despite their circumstances and without being afforded any of the opportunities I have today (such as the option to complete high school) they were able to employ hard work to get farm land, a house (2 houses actually), and raise 5 kids. All 5 kids grew up to be strong, successful, and loving, despite also growing up the Jim Crow era. I'm proud of my grandparents (aunts and uncles, too) because they beat the odds. The heart of black history isn't about slavery or racism, but about strength and survival. When I look at what the people who came before me accomplished in the face of blatant adversity, I know that I have no excuse. ‪#‎NotAshamed‬ ‪#‎MyAncestorsWereSlavesButTheyStillCameOutOnTop‬ ‪#‎BlackHistoryMonth2016‬ ‪#‎OhSnapWeGet29Days‬ ‪#‎MakeItCount‬

Don't Quit

Photocredit: Unsplash.com/Jukan Tateisi

The end of the day comes
Hours upon hours of solid work
But my progress is lacking
And I seem to have missed the mark...
I'm looking at this failed experiment
I'm wondering why it's so hard—
Nothing about this seems impossible
But my results are always broken and charred.
So here comes that quite voice creeping
Singing soft lullabies in the corners of my mind;
He's telling me it's ok to cry, it's ok to quit
That little voice that wants to see me fall behind.
But I'm waiting for something a little less pleasant
That cacophony that goes against the grain,
And His voice isn't going to lull me to sleep
Instead He'll shake away the excuses in my brain.
He already told me I could do this,
He said I had only to try—
Never give up, never back down
Never stop trying to fly.
Oh, the devil knows I want to quit,
Tries to hit me where I'm weak
But God knows where to find me—
He knows I'll listen when He speaks.

The False Calm

I turn away,
But the vision is still there—
I close my eyes,
But they still see...
I try to wrap myself
In a silk cocoon
Fade away into natures arms,
But these bullets pierce
The strongest of walls
This silence breaks
The hardest of hearts...
A metaphorical calm before the storm
When the streets run red with blood
Drained from brown and black bodies
And the very last breath is a cry for help
But the ears of the masses are turned away
They expect us to wait and wait, day after day
To die and to cry, to lay souls resting in the deep
Not to wake screaming from the nightmares we keep
Only to realize we were never asleep...

Doing the Most

I've been stretched thin,
Trying to do it all--
Determined not to quit,
Determined not to fall
And stretch my wings
Just a little further, higher
Keep pushing until I get there—
Until I'm the strongest flier

The First Step

Light reflects

In bright wide eyes

Image from Clker

And out of eyes
Connects--

     Arms, legs, toes, fingers...

Eyes follow movement

     Hair, teeth, nose, nails...

Eyes take them in.

New extensions to use--

To feel.

Touch the surface

Soft and warm--

Feel life;

Discover blood running

     Pulse racing,
          Lungs breathing,

Fall--

But get back up.

Scholarship Above All

One of the most important things, in my opinion, is to showcase the positive within the black community. Often, news relating to present day blacks is littered with tragedy or controversy--drama and tension sell. From shows like Real Housewives to Kanye, the news well replay stories where blacks commit crimes but they will overlook, or barely mention, the group of blacks working in a soup kitchen to feed the local homeless. The act of reporting only the bad is part of what sways people to believing stereotypes. Media outlets like Upworthy are great for getting positive news (about anyone, it's not race specific), and if I had the funds and man power (contact me if you want to get this rolling) I'd start an Upworthy for blacks. 

Image from Yale's baseball roster

In that line of thought, I thought I'd dedicate today's Black History Month post to Akintunde Ahmad. Ahmad was a senior at Oakland Technical High School last year. He had a perfect 5.0 GPA and he scored 2100 of the SAT. Ahmad plays the French horn, the African drums, and also excels on the baseball team. Its not surprising that the Ivy League was waiting with open doors for this young man. He's been honored by the Oakland Raiders, made an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and accepted to more schools than the newscasters were allowed to let him list. Ahmad decided to pursue his studies at Yale and is a freshman there now.

Achieving academic success is usually a nail in the social coffin for high school students regardless of color, but for black students it can be even more alienating. Academically gifted blacks are often on the receiving end of labels and comments such as "oreo," "acting white," "talking white," and "forgetting where you come from." Seeing Ahmad receive the recognition he deserves will not only inspire people to follow his footsteps, but also remind other black teens who are also excelling academically (and they are out there, perhaps they don't have a perfect 5.0 or they come from "more positive" neighborhoods, but he's not alone) that what they are doing is worth while. So, congratulations, especially to Akintunde Ahmad, but in general to all the young scholars making their way to college. Whether you're going to technical school, community college, or the Ivy League, I'm proud of you. Keep up the good work.

References

1. "Raiders Honor Yale-Bound Oakland Teen For 5.0 GPA, 2100 SAT Score". CBS Local. May 20, 2014
2. Riya Bhattacharjee. "Akintunde Ahmad, Oakland "Street Dude" with 5.0 GPA, Appears on "The Ellen Show," Announces He Will Attend Yale". NBC. April 23, 2014

Black Owned Cities & Towns

Home Sweet Home

You don't know me,
I haven't been given a name
     But I'm still here...
Lingering in the shadows
Forgotten memories,
Forgotten years.

I don't grace the pages
Someone hid away my legacy
Left me to fade away
Erase this truth that enrages,
Wash away the blood of the ages

And pretend I was never here.

But I was a beacon of light
Calling out in the darkest of night
And it was I that gave hope
Welcomed hope-starved masses
     into the bosom of love--
I am home...

I am carried in the mind,
Celebrated in the soul,
Loved deep within the heart--
You don't know me,
But from me you cannot depart.

Fort Mose

Founded even before the United States of America, Fort Mose was the first town ran and established by free blacks. Originally named Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose, Fort Mose was founded in 1738 by fugitive slaves. Led by Francisco Menendez, the men of the town formed a militia which stood as the first line of defense between Spanish Florida and English Carolina. During this time period any slave that escaped to Florida and confessed to be Roman Catholic was declared free. The growth of newly freed blacks in the area paved way for the creation of the town. Promises of freedom inspired slaves in Georgia and the Carolinas to flee eventually resulting in the revolt known as the Stono Rebellion, the bloodiest uprising of the 18th century by black slaves. In response, the English attacked and destroyed Fort Mose, then captured and enslaved Menendez. Luckily, Menendez was able to escape slavery and return to Fort Mose which was rebuilt in 1752. The city prospered until 1763 when the Spanish lost "ownership" of Florida. The residents of Fort Mose left Florida as well and re-established a town in Cuba [1]. The site of Fort Mose, just north of St. Augustine, is now preserved by the Fort Mose Historical Society.

The Black Wall Street

Greenwood, a black neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was one of the wealthiest black neighborhoods in the United States and earned the nickname "The Black Wall Street." Greenwood was home to many prosperous black owned stores and businesses until 1921. A mob ransacked the area in May of 1921 and in the days that followed, a destructive race riot erupted. By the end of the riot, 35 blocks of the town were destroyed, many lives were lost, and though no one from the mob was arrested, at least 4,000 blacks were taken into custody. There was so much death and devastation that the thriving city collapsed [2, 3]. 

Other Notable Black Cities & Towns

Speaking of Wall Street, from the 1830s to the 1860s, the area now known as Wall Street was home to Manhattan's first free black residence. Back then, it was known as Five Points and home to both free blacks and Irish immigrants. Due to prostitution, bars, gambling, and the radical practice of racial mixing, it unfortunately became known as a slum. Most of the population fled in 1863 during the draft riot [4].

Rosewood--not the fictional town in popular television series Pretty Little Liars, but Rosewood, Florida--was another black town, founded in 1870, and lost to a race riot. The trigger for the riot in Rosewood was the accusation of a black man raping a white woman. Enraged at the idea of a black man assaulting a white woman, the KKK stormed the town and massacred its citizens for three days. They continued to hunt and burn the remains of the citizens (dead or alive) in attempt to cover up the true number of murders. When taken to trial the jurors reported that they found no evidence for indictments [5]. A movie about the tragedy was made in 1997, you can view the movie trailer here. 

A list of other black cities and towns can be found here.

References

1. "Fort Mose". PBS; visited 2015
2. Josie Pickens. "The Destruction of Black Wall Street". Ebony. May 31, 2013
3. "Tulsa Riot (1921)". Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, via PBS. 2012
4. Lisa Orr. "New York's Mixed-Race Riot". NY Times. July 15, 2013
5. "History of Rosewood, Florida". The Real Rosewood Foundation; visited 2015
6. "Rosewood: The last survivor remembers an American tragedy". The Grio. January 4, 2012