"What we've already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow"

I watch a lot of tv...like, a lot a lot, but something I watched this morning resonated with me like nothing has before. On this Saturday morning, while procrastinating on my study plans for the day, I happened to turn on the history channel in which the special "Stories from the Road To Freedom" was playing. Just to give you some background on myself: I was born in Harlem, NY to a father originally from Harlem and a mother from Orangeburg, South Carolina. When I was 6 we moved to Westchester where I always stood out like a sore thumb. I could probably count on one hand the number of black friends I had/have growing up, not saying thats a particularly bad or good thing, that's just the way things were. Although I never really focused on race nor had many instances where me being black greatly affected my day-to day; my parents always made sure I knew where I came from and what to be thankful for. Sitting watching this special this morning, at 25 years old, I think it just hit me; the enormous amount of life I have to be thankful for, and the gratitude for the many who made it happen.

Back in the day, blacks had it rough. This is no new fact or notion- we've all, no matter our race, been taught that since elementary school. But seeing the evolution in the two hour special on the history of what blacks went through, go through, and came to; made it real. When I turned on the special, somewhere near the middle, it was starting in on education differences in the 1950's. They showed the "white schools" where kids were happy and running around seemingly carefree, and then cut to the black schools in the south where the kids had no shoes, were sharing old beaten up books and squeezed into a cramped classroom. The only thing I could think of when I saw that was my mother. Especially because the narrator for that section came from good ole Orangeburg, South Carolina. I always knew my mother was raised in the thick of the civil rights era and saw and lived through unimaginable times-but to actually see, on film of how it was-while sitting in my apartment, holding a B.S and MBS degree, three years away from a D.M.D degree and only a generation removed from those scenes...there just isn't any words. 

My mothers mother mother was a slave, my mothers mother was "the help" who left her 12 babies at home to go up north and care for other peoples babies, and my mother grew up in the midst of a changing world; where she fought for respect and equality, and lived to see me, her only daughter, following every dream she's ever had with little resistance and wanting for nothing. I guess the word to sum up what I'm feeling is pride. Watching the special made me sick and angry of the abuse people faced not that many years ago all in the name of prejudice and racisim; but the fact the some angry people turned into many and that many turned into a movement who chose to fight back and change the norm and create the world that I live in now. The world where I'm allowed to not acknowledge race every day, and dream without boundaries, and see so many people who look like me doing amazing and extraordinary things every day. Beyonce is on top of the world, Jay-Z had a stadium built in Brooklyn, Oprah is a household name, PRESIDENT Barack Obama. This is the world now. I, like many, grew up being able to recite Martin Luther Kings Jrs word by memory, 

"I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." 

...but hot damn, the only thing I could think of while watching this special was "I am living the dream". Amazing. Proud. Humbled. Exalted. Determined. Awe-struken. That is how I feel right now.

At the same time, I couldn't help but see the parallels between the civil rights movement back then and the quest for gay rights today. This quote by MLK holds undoubtedly true for me right now,

"Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality."

History has always been one of my favorite subjects in school. The only way to move forward rightfully, is to study and correct the paths of the past. All is not equal and fair in the world we live in today for many: blacks, whites, hispanics, immigrants, gays, poor...there is still so much to be done. But as our 44th President, a Harvard educated man with English and Kenyan roots, eloquently said:

"What we've already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow."

Proud and Determined. I have work to do...we ALL have work to do; and right now, I feel beyond ready.

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If you are interested, the special is a dvd sold here for $20: http://shop.history.com/stories-from-the-road-to-freedom-dvd/detail.php?p=442918

A book similar to this special, which I also found incredibile is, The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson.

xoxo