It’s 2014. The last tired days of 2014. I am no longer that soft, biddable girl you knew. I am no longer willing to go along to get along. I will no longer laugh if, when I’m at the water fountain, you tell me I can’t drink there because it’s whites only. I will no longer bite my tongue when you tell me Mick Jagger would be better looking without his nasty nigger lips. I will no longer bow my head at your command as if I owe you the freedom to touch my hair. I will no longer waste my breath educating you when you ask me why, if I wash regularly, my skin is still so dark.
It’s 2014. It’s 2014, and we are all grown up now. And I have grown into a woman who speaks when she has words, who believes in the value of that speech and refuses to clog her throat choking down all the things she’d like to say. I have grown into a woman who won’t let her voice be taken. I will say what is in my mind, what is in my heart, what is burning through the lining of my stomach after so many years of holding my tongue to make nice.
It’s 2014, and I am tired. More tired than 52 years warrants, tired like almost 400 years of rape and murder, like 400 years of holding my tongue, swallowing my truth, waiting my turn, waiting for the society I live in to finally-and-for-all accept that I am here, that I am who this history has made me and who I have made myself, that I am worthy, that I can think, that I have a heart full of love, that I am beautiful, that I’m not going anywhere.
It’s 2014, and I am not going anywhere. I won’t be put down, I won’t be made small. I will take up every inch of the space that I need. And then I will take the inches and feet and miles of space that I want.
Michael Brown is dead, and I can’t change that. Darren Wilson will never have to pay for killing Michael Brown, and I can’t change that. But I can honor Michael Brown, I can honor Tarika Wilson, Eric Garner, Eleanor Bumpurs, Ramarley Graham, John Crawford III, Tamir Rice, Kimani Gray, Oscar Grant, Yvette Smith, Sean Bell, Amadou Diallo. I can honor all of those lost by being here, by opening my mouth, by saying their names, by remembering, by taking up space, by being the truth of the Angry Black Woman. Because I am angry, angrier than I am tired, angrier than I am sad. I am angry, and you don’t know me angry. You only know my smile, my shyness, my willingness to let you be right, to let you go first.
It’s 2014, and that girl doesn’t live here anymore.
if you want kin, you must plant kin ... 
With you. (xo)
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Maggie. I miss you. Thank you.
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Bravo! This time, I think that being angry is better. Perhaps that’s what will bring the change we have needed for so long.
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That’s how it feels to me, too, Tara. My response this time — though it began with tears — feels very different. Different in my body, different in my heart. It feels articulate rather than numb and speechless. It’s a change I welcome.
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Powerful words–what we need is a world that will listen and understand. Keep sharing.
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Thanks, Maya.
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Powerful, yes, and the world, the white world, has to not only understand but respond appropriately, i.e., to correct what has been, what is, so wrong in this country. I will do what I can.
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Thanks, Sonia.
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The old Stacie was nicer but impenetrable. I like this one better even when she makes me wince. I send my love and condolences as I try to imagine what it was like to feel a thousand times sadder, angrier and more frustrated than I did as I watched Darren Wilson explain why he murdered Michael Brown.
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Thanks, Maureen. It’s interesting: I was thinking of a very specific group of folks who knew me when … and they are people who knew me a LONG time ago. But I guess I am becoming someone different even for people who know me now. I’ll have to think about that.
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The Dopeness!
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Bani. ❤
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You are strong and courageous. The pen is mightier than the sword.
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Thanks, Loralee.
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