"Racism"

 Guest Edited by

"Racism is dying. I know it looks like it's reinvigorated but that's what happens when something is dying. It calls out for help and support. An ideology is alive and like all living things it fights to stay alive especially on its death bed. Hold on. A new consciousness is coming." 

~Mehcad Brooks                                                                                              

Racism is like an unwanted guest in your home waiting to take your spirit and screw up your life. If you came from two parents of color you cannot avoid it no matter how much you try. One way or another, racism will hit you in your face or behind your back.

Racist people will prejudge you and stick you into the lowest ranks of humanity. You will never be considered an equal; instead, you will be considered and treated like an uneducated, ill-mannered, unsophisticated and criminal-minded being.

We as people of color internalize it by hating ourselves or externalize it by hating everyone else.

As people of color how do we deal with it?

How can we explain it to white people?

Racism is insidious and it is ugly; it destroys from the inside to the outside. Racism breeds hate and turns people into murderers, no doubt about that. How can we love ourselves, the earth and its creations if we cannot come to grips with our own humanity?

Why are we as human beings so caught up with skin color?

If you are an optimist then you can relate to and believe in the Mehcad Brooks quote in the beginning of this essay.

If you are a pessimist then you will believe that racism is here to stay.

Either way, we all have a story to tell and share with the world, our own perspectives, beliefs, songs and stories that we lived, witnessed or were told by our elders, parents or teachers.

Write my fellow indigenous writers; let's put it out there; let's write about this insidious social disease! Let's come to an understanding and shed some light on this issue for our future generations.

The world needs to hear our cries and songs, read our poems and stories and share in our struggles of survival.

We are still here.

All My Relations,

Zibiquah, a.k.a. Ruth Denny

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Deadline for Submissions:  March 10, 2020

Expected Publication Date:  Mid-May 2020

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