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