It’s unreal to feel as if you are waking up from a long winter’s sleep and finding yourself fighting the same predators that preyed on you when you were young. Except this time, I realized they were attacking my children. The enormity of why they were always after the children had finally sunk in. It bought out the mama bear in me. The kind of bear that never lets up until the threat has been smashed forever. Never, to return.
When my daughter was weeks old, I had her propped with a milk bottle on a pillow. I was busy getting things out of the way for a new refrigerator. Suddenly, the landlord said your baby’s spitting up. He had just moved the refrigerator, which was blocking the kitchen entrance to the living room, and I was on the wrong side. The mama bear came out of me, and I lifted that refrigerator out of my way with one arm to get to my baby girl to stop her from choking on the milk.
I feel that type of mama bear for my African American children today. They are not getting the support they need from their people, and they need it fast. Our future generations are floundering. They don’t have anyone looking out for them to fight for them. To defend, protect, and prepare them for the future. I feel guilty for dropping the torch that was carried by the people who fought against the trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Who fought and protected me during Jim Crow, Black Codes, and Civil Rights. Their fight carried me where I am today.
Today, racism exists in more insidious ways. It gives just enough to survive to think all is okay, but it is careful not to give enough to thrive. The future of African Americans is headed towards generational poverty by 2053, according to Yul Anderson’s The Future of Black America 2053. Our time is running out. Our communities are almost gone, the family structure is almost gone, and our young generations are almost gone. The fight is not over!
When I asked my granddaughter what she thought of my idea of the African Future Pledge, she said, “Thank you, grandma, because we don’t have anyone looking out for us.”
Her words brought out the mama bear in me, and this is what came out of me to fight, defend, and protect our children and prepare them for a thriving future and generational wealth:
www.africanfuturepledge.com Take The Pledge! Protect Our Future!
I could use the support of other Papa and Mama Bears.
Mama Bear
