Plog Number 143
The Black Aesthetic
Hello Ploggers, how are you all. I started to write this on why white people can not do Diversity training in the workplace for employees of color. But I went a different direction. When I write these I go by how I am lead. So here goes. Racial relations in this country have kind of been on auto pilot as far as I can tell. After hundreds of years of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, Human, Chattel American Slavery, Jim Crow Era, KKK , real estate red-lining and modern day leftover badges and incidents of all of the above. To this day March 12, 2023 we are still burdened by the trauma to our ancestors from American Chattel Slavery. Yes I am saying that it is still around. And yes I know that Slavery ended in 1865. I also understand that none of those people are still around on the face of the🌍 earth. But what I need everyone to understand is the fact that there are still many vestiges of slavery that are still around to this day. They still exist and they influence our lives from the moment we are born. Let me explain.
As a black female born in 1961 there were certain things that I experienced that my white contemporaries did not. My parents would have never been able to buy 🏠 property in a place that was not red lined for people of color. Therefore my educational opportunities were limited. This in turn limited my college choices. This in turn limited my career choices. This affected my earning potential and my glass ceiling. Not to mention that as a black woman, I will only earn 75 cents per hour compared to the $1 💵 that a white male will earn. I have actual proof of that one. As a starting and inexperienced NP my pay paralleled these percentages to the T. My bestie was a similarly situated inexperienced NP who happened to be a white male. He started at the $1 and I started at the 75 cent salary. We both worked at Federally funded agencies. So while we did the same job we were paid very 💲 differently.
There it is in yours and my face. Another left over is the head start that white Americans have over black Americans. Yet somehow we are expected to perform on the same level. In a purely psychological way, black people are behind in the actual success of living life, rearing kids and climbing the career ladder. Black Americans are different and distant from Africans and any other group. Africans have not been enslaved, endoctrinated and de-culturized. Not to mention, beaten, tortured, and dehumanized in ways that are unthinkable. Being descendants of that type of trauma is not without consequence. African Americans are totally unique in our history and our evolution. We are not the same as Africans, or Jamaicans, or ANYONE. Our mere survival is a testament to our 💪 strength. Period. Our ingenuity, resolve, and guile got us far as a hunted species. But as Maslow taught us, you do not evolve to your higher self until your basic needs are satisfied. Many of us are still working on our basic survival needs including 🍲 food, shelter, clothing etc. The ability to appreciate art and history comes only after we are well fed.
We are all products of our history. Learn it, appreciate it, reckon yourself in it and go forth. I have such respect and awe for my ancestors and the fact that they/we have survived. Amen and RECLAIM!
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