Kwanzaa: Ujima

Ujima: To build and maintain our community together and make our sister’s and brother’s problems our problems and to solve them together.

We have been given an order a demand by the creator of the universe to take care of one another. To make your issue my issue. To not close our eyes when another is wounded but to ask, how can I help? When there is trash on the street it doesn’t matter if you put it there or not it is our command from the first Adam to have dominion over the earth, sea, animals, and land and to pick up that trash.

I am a black trans man I am not a thief. I am not a nigger. I am not a low life. Just because I come from poverty I am not poverty. Just because I struggle with a mental illness I am not my mental illness and it is not all of me. Just because I am on disability that doesn’t mean I don’t work nor am I lazy. I am a student and scholar in the making studying and pursuing and double master’s degree. No ma’am, no sir just because I wear a dark hoodie you don’t need to follow me around the store. Just because I smile at you doesn’t mean I intend to cause you harm. Why are you so afraid of the color of my skin? Am I not more than my blackness? Can you not see that I belong to a family? Officer, please don’t search me, not all black people look alike. Officer, please don’t shoot at me use your words. I am educated and can speak eloquently. If you don’t stop to ask my name or ask my story, you’ll never know. Will you?

“The only thing about rivers is you can’t step into the same river twice. The waters are always changing always flowing… and we all must pay a price to miss a chance at never knowing” Pochantos (Disney 1995)

To everyone we only have one earth. Yes, it costs more to go green but it hurts a lot more to die. We are killing animals, homes, and the earth. We are responsible for the calamity and destruction we must change our ways and do it NOW! We must demand that the gov’t hear our voices and make our votes count or vote them out. We must stand up for what is noble, pure, good, wholesome, loving, kind, and decent; sacred. I want kids and grandkids and great-grandkids. I want to change this earth for foster youth behind me and foster young adults I can’t do that if we all keep our eyes closed hoping for the next person to fix it.

Ujima is a call to action. A call to authority. I am first a Child of the God, a Black, African American Queer Man! I will be treated with dignity and respect and value. I will treat this earth with respect and kindness and dignity. I will start this year, NOW demanding my rights from my gov’t to vote freely and fairly and lastly I will be my brother’s and sister’s keeper.

What is your Ujima?

Joyous Kwanzaa. In Memory of oh Rep. John Lewis

Umoja is coming!

Umoja (Unity): To strive for and to maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race.

No one really knows why this holiday means so much to me. What is it? Is the question I am asked when I mention it. To me, it’s self-expressive and can be celebrated in a plethora of ways. However, it touches my heart because of my aunt; before I went into foster care it was Christmas there I realized my place in poverty and then Kwanzaa started this and gave me hope for my future and to celebrate being black, queer (LGTBQ), trans, educated, the children, the elderly; feeling no shame but inspired every day and every year to be my best. I promised to keep it close to my heart because one day there would be unity in my life. Unity within my family.

Its principles are where my attributes of integrity, wholeness, creativity; all the good that encompasses a person. Yes, Kwanzaa is meant to celebrate African American Heritage, and I don’t take that away, but it’s more inclusive than one race. I’m Proud of being of African Decent! I’m proud of my kinky and coiled hair. I’m proud of my faith and all the faiths that Africans celebrate. But let us not forget that the African American race is combined of many races, therefore, when one hurts we all hurt; when one is joyful we all celebrate; when one mourns we all mourn. Kwanzaa is collective and created in wholeness striving in our countries communities. 

So today is Umoja meaning unity. My family is broken but my life isn’t broken. I have a family that I created. Unity is the design for all humanity the hope of the creator. So today your life might not be all together, and your family too may be broken. You may have hurts and past hurts. You may have just experienced the biggest catastrophe in your life. 

Unity is coming. Hold on and keep fighting. This holiday isn’t just for African American people but for people who celebrate this melting pot of a country. The odds are in your favor. 2020 I believe will be a great year full of blessings and joy. With division and strife in our country, I believe that Umoja is coming.

Celebrate Umoja through gratitude, self-reflection, and loving the community of people that surround you. Celebrate Umoja by being yourself, being expressive, being accountable, and the leader of your community. Celebrate Umoja through thankfulness, being affirming and accepting. Umoja is made up of different faiths, different skin tones, different backgrounds, and LOVE! Celebrate Umoja with me! 

Unity is coming! 

Joyous Kwanzaa! 

Black Belief!

I believe I am the answered prayer of a slave.

I believe that the God of my slave ancestors is outside of religion space and time

I believe that God is consistent and his word is his bond (promises)!

He promised:

hell on earth

calamity and suffering; on this he was clear

I know of the suffering of the black slaves

I know the suffering of generations to come and I empathize and stand to chant

BLACK LIVES MATTER

God’s truth holds in court

God assures peaks of peace and times of prosperous soulful restoration

the movement and belief that BlACK LIVES MATTER

witnesses to the struggle of souls

and the promised and answered prayers of slaves

that we would marry wisdom, dance with destiny and find peace in chaos

Proclaim our integrity

We will walk along with the historical negro voices

Our feet will hit rock, and legs will get scarred

Our voices will unite in a war cry

then, you will see our war dance

My people, My black people:

Stand with justice

And, light lady liberty’s flame

Be proud of our kinky hair and dark skin.

Black is beautiful.

God did not give us reason for doubt

But, he (God) promised a journey unlike any humans and overwhelming opportunities

I always wonder one day beside my name will they say “first negro to accomplish this” (whatever “this” is)

I was once a slave

But now we awaken and is FREE!

I was a slave until those cops killed my black brothers and sisters

I was a slave until I was denied rights based on the color of my skin

I was a slave until, I realized as a race, as a people; whom we were meant to be.

“Like Dust, I RISE!” Angelou said

For we are the rhythm and beat of a negro hymn

We triumph in memory believing, God is with us and gave a new name, a new identity and called us to a high calling

He called us his people, then he called us friend

and birthed us purposefully in an era of change, reconstruction, and opportunity

This is what I believe!

We ain’t got no neighbors.

   I live in a suburban area. It has been pretty quiet until this past week.

I live with a white foster family, and across the street when I first moved in I realized that I was not the only person of color.

I was not upset or angry. During 2008 elections  I saw a republican flag hanging from a black mans house. Shocked, everyone on my street was a liberal. I never knew how you could be of color and a republican. 

Until that point I never knew that there were African-Americans who would vote for “Bush.”

Today June 24 2012 I was walking from the corner market. I have dread locs and I just washed them. I look like a rug. However, I finally said walked crossed the street and said “Hi, I am Domenia your neighbor” The young man, said “hey, I’m RJ” and we had a conversation.

On my street at RJ’s home it was crowded outside. There was a graduation celebration. I was disturbed though, because the quietness, and stillness in our neighborhood I realized would soon be no more, and maybe the other “white” neighbors would move out in fear of our culture, music style and urban lifestyles; that didn’t fit the white upper class society. 

I talked with RJ. He is really cool! He was sitting on his dads porch. His dad came out front, RJ immediately said “dad, this is your neighbor Mia”

The father immediately said “we ain’t got no neighbors.” He hesitantly shook my hand. I wanted to cry, because I felt in my heart that he was responding to stereotypes. Just because people choose to sit on their porch does not mean that trouble is afoot. I asked God to forgive me, because I had made that same assumption when I saw that there was more color added to Belmont Street it would some how change something, we would be united solely because of the color of our skin. 

I’m in awe. “we ain’t got no neighbors.” I wonder if the Republican flag was really just to fit in or if he is a true Republican. I wonder if he was worried about how other people saw him and his family.

Finally on my street I thought I could befriend a family with hair like mine. And then I heard the words “we ain’t got no neighbors”

The African-American community is not all bad. It’s false that,  one bad apple spoils it for the rest. However, we are fighting the stereotype. I feel as though that African-Americans creates more tension than what needs to be. The mentality of being 3rd class citizens, animals, “niggas”, defeated and demoralization has to go.

Our young men and women need to grow up, and be raise into position of authority and respect for themselves, their country, their family, and their community. Yes, the African-American Community has seen turmoil, death, hate, depression and oppression. However so has the Jewish Community, Hispanic/Latino Community, Mental/Handicapp Community, Foster Care Youth and Immigration Community.

“WE HAVE NEIGHBORS! AND IT’S IMPORTANT THAT WE RECOGNIZED THAT TOGETHER WE STAND AND DIVIDED WE SHALL FALL”

SO TO 15 BELMONT STREET “YOU HAVE NEIGHBORS, BLACK, WHITE, HISPANIC, GAY, HANDICAPP, AND OF DIFFERENT FAITHS.

Philippians 4: 12-13

¹² I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry,   whether living in plenty or in want. ¹³ I can do all this through him who gives me strength.