Crisis

We all hit moments of crisis in our lives. Those times when things have gone seriously awry and there are two ways out... overcoming, or being overcome. I am very familiar with crisis. I've been through this many times before. Right now I am worried about a loved one who can only get better for a time... or worse... and critical. It is hard to breathe. There are few moments when they are not on your mind. But, as often happens, there is nothing you can do... including, being present... sometimes you are not who they need. So you pray and wait.

I woke up this morning with the word on my mind... outside of our immediate circumstances, I also feel that we are in crisis as a society. I feel like I have been holding my breath waiting for a breakthrough for far too long... longer than that one deep breath would take to expire, leaving me gasping and near death.

I feel like I am living in a constant state of PTSD.  I've had more personal crises by the age of 21 than most have in their lifetime.  Add the general state of our nation, with the heightened racism, and hard division of all things political, and we have a recipe for the perfect storm. I worry about my kids.  I worry about their friends. I worry about my husband, my brothers, my sisters.  Being black in America right now feels like having a bullseye fixed on you.

Yet, I feel like I am the only one holding my breath. Maybe I've had far too much training and can see it coming. Maybe I am over reacting... But I am on edge.  All.the.time.

Your silence is a luxury

Macklemore put out a video/song in 2016 that become more relevant by the moment.



It ends with the statement, your silence is a luxury. Hip Hop is not a luxury.

It's a long video and he raps fast, but I encourage you to listen carefully.  He touches on the appropriation of the hip hop and culture without being sensitive to the trials and tribulations of the people who built the culture of it.

It makes me think of how so many suburban moms who take their kids to hip hop dance classes and kids learn all the neat movements and isolations and present the dance real, real good, but never really understand the emotions behind it.  It just seems so empty to me.

like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMBB4zW9I2Q

And this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXLwYkQiz88

It's kind of upsetting to me.

If you are going to teach your kids cultural dance, take them into the culture, into the studious, into the streets where the people who understand it are choreographing it.  It hurts my soul to see see kids learning sanitized versions of a pure art form... It's kinda like watching hip-hop country dancing.  Stop it.





I'm not saying for a minute that all cultures can participate in black culture... but don't sanitize it.  Learn it from the masters.




It's on the wall. There is unity in diversity.

Participate in the art... participate in the struggle.  Your silence is a luxury some of us can't afford.