Being Black

[Music]

hi

i’m tish ashley and i want to tell you a

story

first off i’m from texas so when you

think of texas

i would kind of think of maybe the

cowboys

or possibly our great tex-mex

food well my husband told me that we

were going to move

to alabama and i don’t ever really think

never really thought about alabama so

the thoughts that i had weren’t about

football or chocolate gravy

so when we arrived here i noticed that

this area was a little bit naturally

segregated

and i kind of wanted to make a change i

wanted to make a difference but i wasn’t

sure how

and i wasn’t really sure if anybody

wanted change

or a difference to be made a lot of

times my family and i

we were the only black people in our

setting at our co-ops or church or

whatnot so fast forward to

recent events i had a what-if moment you

know those moments that kind of give you

a boost in your confidence i thought

what if we could make change through

conversation

so i gathered a panel of black people to

answer questions

that really anybody sent in and

long story short there was an awesome

turnout i wasn’t really sure that there

would be

but i was really amazed by the response

of our community coming together

and wanting to make a change wanting to

be a difference

so today we have some people from our

community

who are amazing who have come up with

their own what-ifs

to kind of shed some light on issues

maybe we haven’t thought about

i hope you enjoy thank you

hi my name is teresa what if people

listened to each other before speaking

and offering their perspectives

one well-known scripture reads but

everyone must be quick to hear

slow to speak and slow to anger so

like this verse suggests what if we

really listen to each other first

then maybe you could really hear me and

understand me when i say i sometimes

think twice about sending my husband to

the store after dark

especially when he isn’t wearing his

work-affiliated clothing which gives him

some measure of credibility

because otherwise he could be seen as

just another tall black man entering the

store late

and give cause to be followed or

misjudged simply because of the color of

his skin

if you listened you would hear me when i

say my friend’s husband

decided to leave a store when he was

asked to wear a mask

not because he was anti-mask but because

he was actually afraid to be the big

tall

black man in a mask in the store because

he remembers

many times that men of his same skin

color have not

made it home from the store and the mask

just heightens others perceptions of him

what if we were truly judged by the

content of our character

not by the color of our skin what if we

truly regarded others as more important

than ourselves

what if we not only look to our own

interests but also to the interests of

others

today’s america lacks empathy

empathy is the ability to understand and

engage in the feelings of others

it’s the ability to say hey i have an

opinion

but i have an experience which you’ve

experienced so tell me more about your

experience

or to say i hear you say you’re hurting

because of this

i’m here with you and i’m here for you

what if we were to listen

to hear to understand to express

empathy to engage compassionately

[Applause]

hi my name is tia and what if

i learned to love my brown skin sooner

i don’t remember when i first realized

that the color of my skin may be

different

but i do remember the experiences that

led me to believe that being black

equated to being

inferior and unattractive what would you

think of yourself

if a guy rejected you because his father

told him he would

dig his grave if he dated a black girl

imagine being told i just want to know

what it’s like to sleep with a black

girl

imagine having to wonder if a guy

wouldn’t date you because of the color

of your skin growing up in a

predominantly white and small

county in southern alabama i heard

things like you’re pretty for a black

girl

and you talk white and i hardly saw any

women

in positions of influence who looked

like me

so how did i come to love my beautiful

brown skin

i found beauty in god you see in college

god reminded me that

i am made in his image and to hate

myself would be to hate god the one

who created me so in college god

reminded me that i am made in his

image and to hate myself would be to

hate

god the one who created me so i embraced

the beauty that god designed

me to carry and i became a pageant queen

i became a mentor and i became a leader

in my community and that’s why

representation

matters because you are the role model

who will champion other black girls and

other black women

when you walk in the beauty that god has

designed you

to carry so dear black girl

and women of color you are not the sum

of your body you are not the sum

of the color of your skin and you are

not the sum

of the negative racial experiences you

face

but you are the sum of the one

who created you

hello my name is milos

what if our country rectified so many

unfulfilled what ifs

what difference would it make in our

lives today if the united states had

actually stood behind

the reconstructive efforts after the

civil war

in regards to former slaves and their

descendants

the date is january 12 1865.

general sherman and secretary of war

edwin stanton

are meeting with 20 prominent black

ministers

when asked in what manner do you think

you can take care of yourselves

and how can you best assist the

government

in helping to maintain your freedom to

paraphrase these men replied

we can best take care of ourselves by

having land

to till it and to turn it by our own

labor

and we will soon be able to maintain

ourselves and have enough to spare

and in regards to assisting the

government our young men

should enlist in service to the

government and serve it in whatever

manner that is needed

we aim to live on the land until we’re

able to buy it

so that we can have something of our own

now these statements speak in stark

contrast to many of the negative

stereotypes

that existed then and now centered

around

laziness lack of patriotism

and a demand for handouts in regards to

black americans

what if the over 400 000 confiscated

and abandoned acreage that was formerly

owned by treasonous americans that

general sherman had actually set aside

for black americans

along the atlantic coastline it actually

remained in black hands

more than likely those black americans

would be able to

grow and prosper economically and being

able to prosper economically they would

thus be able to prosper

politically and therefore they could

avert or

overturn bigoted and racially biased

infringements

whether du jour or de facto against

their constitutional rights

maybe there would be no convict leasing

poll taxes literacy tests separate but

equal supreme court rulings

denial of military service

the screening of the movie birth of a

nation

in the white house of a sitting

president

maybe there would be no gerrymandering

no redlining maybe there would be no

more need for

new civil rights legislation a century

after

three post-civil war constitutional

amendments had already been passed that

supposedly guaranteed the rights

of black americans what if our country

rectified

so many unfulfilled what-ifs

hi i’m janae what if you were us

you have now had the opportunity to

listen to multiple experiences that you

probably have never thought of or been

through yourselves

your knowledge of our experience seems

to diminish when we begin to talk and

express

our issues and how we feel based on what

we’ve been through

see the same individuals that wrote

those history books decided the

curriculum of what is taught

excluded information that would be

pivotal to the movement and

understanding why this

is not okay see as a young black woman

when i wake up in the morning

figuratively speaking

i already have one strike on me i’m

already behind the curve in multiple

endeavors because

my skin is too dark my hair isn’t

straight or not the right texture

my appearance doesn’t seem to correlate

with the societal thought of excellence

could you imagine being a young black

woman with two master’s degrees working

on a doctorate and still feel

undervalued and

living just above poverty well that’s me

for my young black brothers

you were taught when you walked out the

house that you already had two strikes

on you

one you’re black two you’re a male and

from my experience it seems like black

males intimidate individuals especially

my educated brothers

see being us and black isn’t always

peaches and cream

see the information that was purposely

excluded does not define who we are

destined to be

but for you what if you were us and

everything didn’t seem so

easy and your skin looked like mine and

your hair wasn’t easy to tame like at

night

and relatively speaking life was not

easy because that spoon you had

wasn’t silver and if you ever had to

think about

your life being taken away because of

your skin tone or your life doesn’t

matter because you’re black

while everyone shouts all lives matter

which they do but just remember all

lives don’t matter until black lives

matter too

until someone like me matters to you

my name is rachel what if my pain was a

9.5

i read that there’s a disparity in the

way that african americans are treated

for pain

blacks are less likely to receive pain

medication

than whites entering the facility with

the same condition

so i wondered why that would be and i

figured

maybe it’s because of the way that i

present my pain

so the doc comes in and he says rate

your pain on a scale of zero to ten

zero being no pain at all ten being the

worst pain you can imagine

and when it’s with a smirk and a

squinched face

i say it’s a 9.5

and i almost said it was a 10 because i

have birthed

four children two at the same time all

with no epidural

so i know what a 10 feels like and i am

this

close but i can see by the look in his

face

that he doesn’t really believe me maybe

it’s because

i’m not shedding any tears maybe it’s

because

i’m not crying out loud or wringing my

hands

but if it takes all that for you to

believe me i’m at a loss

because people look like that look like

me don’t express their feelings in that

type of way

they’re not real keen on being that

vulnerable

and it’s because we have a lot of walls

put up

but those walls are justified because we

have a history

riddled with people like henrietta lacks

we have a history

riddled with programs like the tuskegee

syphilis study

so those walls are up and they’re not

coming down

but my pain is still a 9.5 out of 10.

and i don’t even think i have the words

to say

it’s really a 9.5 and i’m not going to

abuse your pain medicine

but i’m not going to beg for it either

so as he walks out of the door

i say to myself i’m gonna have to be

strong

strong enough to take this pain

but i would love to see the day when i

don’t have to

[Applause]

you