On a whim, I reached out to a friend and asked, “Do you ever think about the stories you’ll have to tell about how you lived through injustices, literally and figuratively?”
They said to me, “Sometimes I do. I think about how our ideas, feelings, and actions can change things for the better, and how they will be remembered. It reminds me how I keep hearing how we are ‘living in a history book chapter’ right now, and it’s true.”
I appreciated their response, but pressed them for a more personal answer saying… “No, I mean literally, do you ever wonder what stories you will tell your son or daughter about what happened (is happening right now)?”
They said, “That’s crazy to think about. Honestly, I just pray that the context in which I tell them these stories is not, so they will know how to prepare for when it happens again (or to them). But so that they have an understanding of how we finally arrived at a better place.”
At that, I cried.
“There’s no excuse for the young people not knowing who the heroes and heroines are or were.”
— Nina Simone
“I believe that there will ultimately be a clash between the oppressed and those that do the oppressing. I believe that there will be a clash between those who want freedom, justice, and equality for everyone and those who want to continue the systems of exploitation.”
— Malcolm X
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