Wounds From Battles We Chose Not To Fight

My friend, Chike Akua, posted this video about skin bleaching in Jamaica.

Here's my response:

If we want to stop the bleaching we need to actively show our power by opposing the oppression. 

There's a reason AYA Educational Institute starts with "Warrior-Healer-Builder" instead of "Healer-Builder-Warrior." 

Power converts! 

Whoever shows power garners converts - be it religious, body type, temperament, or phenotype. When the Afro was a symbol of power and purpose, people wanted it. Blacker skin is not only perceived as "ugly," it's associated with powerlessness. 

This is just one more reason that being intelligent is not enough. Healing is not enough. Some healing will only come as we actively oppose oppression. It's not enough to build wealth. Wealth born of capitulation only lauds the power of the oppressor, and with that surrender intact, "Black is Beautiful" and "We were kings and Queens" will not stem the psychic and ancestral blood-letting that is represented by "bleaching." Only as we snatch our freedom from the tyrant's mouth - even if by the inches - will we stem the tide of surrender.

Let's allow the pain of this video to remind us to ask ourselves - "how and in what areas have I been trying to "bleach" the Afrika out? Then stop it, just as we wish they would stop it.

Let it remind us to actively oppose oppression - people, policies, and practices. Start where you are. Join others who are fighting.

You can choose your weapons. You can choose your comrades. Sometimes, you can choose your battles. You CAN NOT avoid the war. It is being visited upon us daily.

Bleaching only reveals the wounds of battles that we CHOSE NOT TO FIGHT.

Like Rev. Vernon Johns one said: "If you see a good fight, get in it."

I add: "If you don't see a good fight, start one."
I add: "Fighting is winning."

Worried that the healer and builder in you will get lost, or that you will become just like them?

On the contrary, the warrior will inform the builder who will know to build a house, a family, a business that will withstand the winds of oppression. The warrior will inform the healer so that the healing medicine and modalities will heal the psychic and cultural wounds born of this protracted battle to make us better warriors and builders.

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