My freshman year of college, after never having earned less than a B my entire life, I nearly flunked out, earning 3 Fs, a B and C. I was depressed and stopped going to class. I was Black and working class at an elite white school. I missed home. I missed family. I was going through something that had nothing to do with my academic abilities, work ethic or ambition. Human beings struggle. This rugged individualism culture, this scarcity mentality, this willingness to write off struggling people as unworthy is toxic and hurts all of us. If an empathetic educator, Dean Flint-Hamilton, hadn’t given me a shot to redeem myself, my life would have been very different. She took a chance on me because she saw me as a whole human being. I was determined not to betray her trust in me. We can do better, y’all, with our young people — with all people. We truly can.
@profgabrielle Men We Reaped, by @jesmimi. She writes with so much clarity and visceral pain, AND you can literally feel the love off the page. (As with everything she writes.)
Im moving into my soft era. I only want kind and gentle people in my life. I want to be loved and surrounded by people that only want the best for me. I want beautiful connections that inspire me to be my best version. To know 100% the ppl around me got me like I got them ✨
THREAD: As #Omicron surges and our systems strain, I wanted to share my #COVID19 experience in NYC last month. It was actually a hopeful window into what a society where we look out for one another and a government that is set up to truly care for us could look like.
There are white folks alive today who participated in lynchings or know friends & relatives who did. Many were able to go about normal lives. Some serve on juries & some are judges. I imagine they find sympathy with violent racists because they feel some degree of kinship.
It’s actually simple: If you can feel pride in things you didn’t personally take part in, then you can feel shame in things you didn’t personally take part in. Some of you are motivated to make this hard, but it’s only hard bc you want the glory of our history but not the burden.
The desire for so many Americans to be free of collective shame, collective atonement and collective responsibility for the shameful legacy of centuries of slavery, racism, apartheid & terroristic violence visited upon fellow citizens is the sign of an immature & selfish culture.