Thank You Miss Rosa!

Rosa Parks passed away tonight at the age of 92. When I think of my earliest childhood memories I think of teachers telling the story of Rosa Parks. My other memories of early grade school are of being ushered into the auditorium to watch Civil Rights films. It was horrifying to watch children being pushed back by the rush of water hoses. My other early memory is of playing outside our house and having the "N" word being shouted at me by the angry passengers. Those images are no different from the images and ideology that have been rising back to the surface taking some of us, by shock and reminding others of our place in America. I think of Robert Davis, attacked by police on the streets of his New Orleans just a few weeks ago. I think of the Mama D and Malik Rahim struggling to maintain their communities in Louisiana, which includes a daily struggle with white hate groups and that includes the police. I think of the Ousmane Zongo's family who suffered his loss, and the fact that the police officer that shot him, was acquitted of manslaughter over the weekend.

Thank you Miss Rosa for standing up for your right to take a seat because you were tired of taking a daily dose of injustice. Is their a little one being born this night to fill your shoes? Has she arrived already?

In these times it seems like we are destined to live the lives of our grandparents and great-grandparents. The civil rights won just a few years after I was born are being chipped and hacked away in the form of voter fraud and Illegal re-zoning by politicians to change voting blocks. The scattering of black folks as a result of water washing away whole times, peoples and places is just so convient for some.

Is this generation ready to step up and help us wade through the floodwaters coming to remove us from Harlem, Brooklyn and wherever urban renewal is taking place? The scattering of black communities is taking us from the gulf to Utah, New York, Washington, DC, Texas and Atlanta and Arizona. Our great-grandparents had each other. Black people had each other.

Poor people, black people and plain old oppressed people listen up. Let's start realizing that our strength is in our numbers and in our ability to strengthen ourselves, our families, and the next generation by doing simple things. Do you say good morning to one another in the morning? Do you make eye contact with strangers on the subway and exchange a smile? Or do you look away? Do you stop teenagers from cursing on the bus? Do you address them in love and respect and remind them that one-day they will lead? Or are you too afraid they will only embarrass you? Do you offer a neighbor the extra food from last night’s dinner or do you throw it away because you don't want them to know, that you know, they have a need? These simple acts can lead us to the conversations that need to be had. These simple acts can lead to discussion, which generate ideas, which motivate people to stop thinking and dreaming of a better world and act to create a new reality.

There is a little of Rosa Parks in each of us. She took a seat and made a stand. How will you stand up today?