I was watching a documentary on HBO called, "The Black List: Volume One" and there is something Richard Parsons says that really struck me. "People in America feel compelled to bring in the notion of ethnicity. When people look at you and then evaluate you or write about you, you're gonna be looked at on either side of the line. If you succeed they're gonna say 'now see, here's a black person who succeeded' and if you fail, they're gonna say, 'well, here's another black person who failed' and so we'll know we've made real progress when we just get to be a person." I believe this world does need to stop being so blatantly arrogant and compartmentalizing of human beings. I believe it will happen but the fight is and has been long and daunting and difficult. I know I can only speak as a woman who has survived abuse and deaths and parent's divorcing and going against the grain - even up until this very moment - but the journey has not been without its tremendous struggles. Still, those experiences made me who I am. I cannot neglect that part of my past nor can I blame them for my future. Everything I do as a result is up to me and that is no one else's burden or triumph but my own. I embrace that. I may not be fighting against a society because of the color of my skin but I am still a woman and that makes me a second class citizen in this nation regardless of what I am able to do. Women are still perceived by ALL races to be lesser and yet we are not giving up the fight to be seen as human beings and equally valuable. I hope that my children grow up in a world where color and gender and sexual preference are not what define them but rather how they impact the world and set it ablaze with an open heart and a clear mind. No one should be pigeon-holed into becoming anything other than who and what they are. BUT - we cannot cop out and say we are a victim of circumstance because being victimized means you accept a secondary role and for me, triumph is the only option. I will not be a victim of anyone's uncertainty or judgment. I am me and I am a woman and above all, I belong to an extraordinary lot of people who all belong to my race ... the HUMAN race. May we learn to see people and nothing more and certainly, nothing less. We are all unique and gifted and valid in a place that needs us to unite and break the ties that have bound us for so long. We can be more. We are more. We have a responsibility to answer the call to push forward with reckless abandon and steady optimism. My great heroes in life (in honoring Black History Month): Langston Hughes Ella Fitzgerald Booker T. Washington W.E.B. Dubois Bill Cosby Frederick Douglas Phylisia Rhashad Lenny Kravitz Jimmy Hendrix Chris Rock Dorothy Dandridge Richard Pryor And by far the one who has influenced me the most ... RAY CHARLES! My life has been influenced by a great many people and I'm sure there are countless others I can add but for now, these are those that changed my way of looking at life.
