NAPPY ROOTS

I AM THE DESCENDED OF SLAVES THAT ARE ASHAMED OF WHO THEY ARE…I was NOT born and raised through extreme racial times in this country, but I am living with the remnants left behind by those that lived through such HARDSHIP. However I have PARENTS that have a DIRECT connection to such ADVERSITY. I know that neither MY mother OR father PICK cotton OR was some HOUSE slave to a WHITE man with a whip, but they did live through what is arguably the most SERIOUS time of SEGREGATION. I say this because I feel that they may have been FREED from being literally CHAIN n’ BOUND but there were BARRIERS and STIPULATIONS placed on where they were allowed. Hence I feel that they taught that showing GENTLENESS = WEAKNESS. Being HARD and TOUGH was the way to ensure SURVIVAL and NOT give up. And I cannot say that I blame them. For years my ancestors worked as DOMESTICS and LABORERS so their children could have a better life. In spite of their TAUGHT HATERED for THEIR skin color, the shape of THEIR noses, the texture of THEIR hair; they carried on and FOUGHT themselves out of the mud by which they were drug. For this reason, I CANNOT fathom why my ancestors survived being RAPED by their masters, WHIPPED and BEATEN to have their memory honored in this way. Our ancestors LOST the VERY knowledge of where they come from, they did NOT have the privilege to pass on the language their forebears spoke, yet we carry the PAIN and internalize it. This PAIN was NOT ours to bear yet WE wear it such PRIDE n’ CONFIDENCE. As a boy I did NOT recognize this PAIN or gave it much THOUGHT or CONSIDERATION until I became an adult. This is when I felt the STING of what my ancestors dealt with because it I now realize that it NEVER left OUR community. This is QUITE evident in the way WE treat each other, what WE do and how WE live OUR lives. It HURTS more than any lash OR beaten OUR ancestors endured and WE still allow the ghost of slavery past to so ELOQUENTLY filter itself through every fiber of the fabric of OUR community. I cannot help but wonder if my MOTHER hated combing my hair because she did with such ANGER and RESENTMENT. It is almost as if SHE and others like HER cannot seem to LET GO of something that made US strong HUMAN BEINGS. In fact I think it made US way TOO strong for OUR own good. OUR NAPPY ROOTS HURT US & I GET TO LIVE IN A TIME WHERE SOCIAL SEGREGATION IS COMMON PLACE. I GET THE ESTEEM PRIVILEGE TO LIVE & BREATHE AS OTHERS THINK BECAUSE OF THEIR LIGHTER SKIN n’ CURLY or STRAIGHT HAIR THAT THEY ARE BETTER. I FIND IT SAD THAT NO MATTER HOW FINANCIALLY SOUND A BLACK PERSON IS, HE WILL ALWAYS BE JUST A BLACK MAN. WHY DON’T WE HONOUR OUR NAPPY ROOTS BY NOT BEING LIKE THOSE THAT VIEWED US AS SUB-PAR? WHY NOT INSTEAD OF MASKING THE COLOR OF OUR SKIN TO BELONG, WHY NOT CELEBRATE n’ HONOUR IT? LET’S NOT ALLOW THE HARDSHIPS OF YEARS PAST HINDER OUR PROGRESS AS A COMMUNITY. I CAN ASSURE YOU THAT THE SOONER WE ACCEPT EACH OTHER THE BETTER WE WILL BE.