I Did Not Realize

The WK Kellogg Foundation declared today, January 21st, as a National Day of Racial Healing. Today's declaration is part of a bigger WKKF Project known as Truth, Racial Healing and Tranformation designed to address the historic and contemporary effects of racism. The Foundation challenged all of its Kellogg Fellows to engage in a racial healing project of some kind, so Fellows from all over the world are hosting events and initiatives today.

As a Kellogg Fellow, I offered to write a blog and share it through my website. Here is my finished product for you to read and ponder:

I didn’t realize in my youth that having a roof over my head, food to eat, access to a car, and money in the bank were luxuries that not everyone enjoyed.

I didn’t realize that growing up with a neighborhood store, a beauty parlor, and neighbors who cared were a ‘given’.

I didn’t realize that being bussed to an all-white high school was abnormal and that that decision had been made by people who never asked me or my father if it was okay to do.

I didn’t realize that I was poor until I got to Talladega College (an HBCU) when a professor announced to our freshman class, “Even if you graduate from Harvard with a Phi Beta Kappa key around your neck, you will never in your lifetime make as much money as the average, American white boy”.

I didn’t realize that being intelligent, outspoken, but well-meaning would constantly place me under scrutiny, accused falsely, ridiculed, and blocked from achieving at every turn.

BUT, what I have realized is that despite it all, I needed to be self-directed and self-motivated.

What I have realized that words and acts of discrimination, racism, misogyny, and intolerance would forever be a part of my vocabulary and life.

What I have realized is that I cannot be indifferent to the hate that is going on around me or doesn’t matter to me or has no impact on me.

What I have realized is that I DO matter, and I CAN make a difference!

I hope you realize that, too!