America, with a Side Order of Slavery

Being Black in America Requires a Relentless Survival Ethic

TODAY IN HISTORY: This month is the anniversary of the four hundred years since the first enslaved Africans arrived in the New World, in Port Comfort, Virginia, in 1619.

An Open Letter to My People no matter where they may be:

To my brothers and sisters who struggle relentlessly but feel too little is changing: I have few words that will comfort you. I can only encourage you to grit your teeth, clench your fist, and push on. Some days you will be battered and take no ground that day.

If you are tired, it is because you are going where no one has gone before and Freedom is an elusive beast, found best in places no one has ever sought to look. You will have doubt, your every decision will reek of it, your thoughts will always sell you short, you will feel inadequate, even when you should feel your most powerful.

We have been imprisoned. Not just our bodies, but our minds. A prison we did not create. We were born into it. It is all around us. It permeates us. If you live in…