Prepare The Black Child

I am not a social person, I like to keep to myself. That was before I became a mother. I could say that being a mother has made me want to make a change in the community that I belong. Before, I would see a lot of injustice and inhumanity displayed every day on the street, on social media and by the police who are meant to protect the people and every time, I would internally express my displeasure but always, I would keep moving on without doing anything to change the situation. I didn’t believe I had what it took to make any change that would affect the situation.

Becoming a mother didn’t change my mindset on set on that but it has given me the courage to try. Very little can go a long way and one could never tell where the change needed might start from. It is truly like John Stuart says during his speech at the University of St. Andrews in 1867, “Let not anyone pacify his conscience by the delusion that he can do no harm if he takes no part, and forms no opinion. Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends than that good men should look on and do nothing. He is not a good man who, without a protest, allows wrong to be committed in his name, and with the means which he helps to supply, because he will not trouble himself to use his mind on the subject.”

I had to memorize that line while in school and it never resonated with me the way it did after the birth of my son. You could say his birth open my third eye. Every day on the street, young black men are killed at an alarming rate, almost as they are hunted by the very police that should protect t them. With each case presented on social media, I feel a rage a fear that consumes and ignites me at the same time. The fear almost cripples me because I know that if nothing is done to bring change, my son could be the next kid shot because he has a toy gun. Oh lord. The fear I have. I watch @auntkaren0 @tizzyent @ispeak1906 and many others shed light on the injustice done using Tiktok, I know that if I don’t do what little I can within my power, I would be letting my son down.

So I have decided to use my little platform and bring more awareness to what is happening. I don’t have millions following me on my different social networks but I will share with the people I have, using my voice to get the message around. We have seen the power that social media has. In every case of gross miscarriages of justice, I will try to find the narrative and circulate it so that people are aware of what is happening and how easy it could easily be for them or their loved ones.

Another way I will take a more active role is to start teaching. I shall provide lessons to kids of colour at m local church or online, whichever one is more possible in this Covid era. I will teach them the naked history of their ancestors the way it happened and not the diluted ones taught in schools, I will emphasise the extra little things they need to be aware of as young black children in the western world. The classes will be for kids between the ages of 10 to 16 years or younger if the parents’ consent. This way, they might live long to fulfil their dreams.