Shut It Down!

I am not sure why is has taken me almost two years to tell this story. My first story got deleted. That's life. But this story is too important not to document. I want to take this time to write an open letter to the 45th President of the United States and his administration. I have so much anger against them. These are not just my feelings! I have black folks saying that they feel that white folks seem to carry themselves with an ego towards black folks, and even our elders! It has never felt tighter or more difficult to land a job as a Black women. Even if I am pursuing my college degree, the education system continues to teach in the format that benefits white and Asian folks at the expense of black student understanding. The administration seems to be getting passes for hate-speech on social media, stripping away immigrants' safety, the right to be able to serve in the military, our access to voting, and to safe homes to live in. This is such a violent culture!

My personal story comes from the institution that I continue to serve. I keep trying to belong to an institution that continues to reject me. Who I am, and ALL of who I am, is not accepted in this institution. I work like a slave to the institution, and they have taken away all of my academic achievement, my chances of getting internship experience, tanked my grade point average that I NEED in order to get a good job, IF I can graduate with my degree on time. The leadership seems to always have the backs of young white students first. I have seen it over and over. They get to be teacher assistants. They have the leadership skills that black students do not always get. We need mentors! We need to feel like we belong in institutions fully! Being an Black Women in a PWI literally has the chance to break you. You really can be left depressed, over-weight, and silenced if you succumb to the true goal of these institutions. Without family, I can say for sure that the institutions will leave you high and dry. No matter if you have paid the employees with your tuition.

What I have to say is that for decades, white folks continue to elect "leadership" that does not benefit humanity in the long-term. We neglect our Earth, our women, our home-stability, and our health for two things: Money and Ego! We need to get off of our PHONES and into the real world, young people! Instead of worrying about who likes our pictures on the internet, or who sees your pictures online—there is no point to that again except EGO. Instead of buying new shoes or new clothes, how about you donate that money to an organization that is doing something to change America. I am going to be especially hard on Black and Brown folks. We are the most resilient people, creative, loving, dignified, community-oriented, giving people in the world! And institutions and the government keeps trying to hold us down!

I have given my health, mental and physical, to my institution. College has given me anxiety, depression, and stress. And everything meaningful that I have learned from college has come from my family stepping up to help me, the books and DVDs that I check out in the library, the students that sat with me, had conversations, or went to Church with me. I had to build my own sense of belonging because PWI Institutions were not created for me. At night when I lay my head down I am restless! I think that it is my ancestors nudging me to get up, push forward, and don't get distracted from the people that do you wrong. Mentors are so important! We deserve to keep our brothers and sisters safe here. This is America! We all belong to America. We have to get serious about this because these are our hearts! American Institutions have tore apart our families, thrown us in cages, kicked us out of school, told us that our trauma doesn't matter, told us that we should only love money and ego, that we should be the ones to STILL serve at the hands of the ungrateful "Leadership." I sense a problem here.

I am battling my anger as I type. It has been so long since I have been able to speak my truth as my full self. Being hidden and silenced is a slow death! Not being able to articulate the feelings of your heart and mind is torture. I am done feeling like my words are never heard! That my truth should be over-looked for the comfort of white folks. They have nothing to fear from us! Every-time that I try to reach over "party-lines" to Conservatives or Right-winged folks I always get confronted with anger or apprehension. It is a fight to prove that I don't want to hurt them, I want us all to be seen as humans by the institutions. I think its wrong that white male elders have to work part-time at pizza joints delivering pizza to college students. I think its wrong that women have to keep fighting for dignity in harassment cases against men. I think that it's wrong that institutions continue to push out students who can't afford education. We are left to serve in low paying, non-living wages to suffer.

I think that although the struggle is continual that young people need to do better! Get off of your phone and TAKE ACTION. There is so much time that we waste posting to social media, taking pictures, listening to music that talks about sex, money, and ego. This is ridiculous to bathe in these concepts! We are walking around carelessly as our humanity is being stripped from us once again! Stop hurting yourself and your sisters and brothers. You cannot hide from the truth no matter how much music you listen to to medicate. Your problems will remain if you don't take action. My advice would be to put down your phone and practice your gift for at least one hour a day. For me, that is my writing. Use your gift to serve other people! Donate to an organization, offer your help to someone that is struggling, and LOOK AROUND and not down at your phone! I pray that a young person is reading my words. I craved for a mentor that I could vent to when I was younger about my issues and hurt! I hear you! And it is so hard to live in these times, y'all! But if we quit then we will let the institutions win. Money and ego wins over human dignity. We need to impeach Donald J Trump and eradicate his administration. We have never had an "President" that has acted so outlandish, so in return we should eradicate him in an unprecedented way. We should not have him in office for another day. I have already contacted the White House with no response. It is our jobs to work in the places that align with our values, and work tirelessly to "create the change we want to see." Love your community and family. And I am taking these steps myself.

If you didn't read anything that I wrote just remember: Use your gift, LOOK AROUND, take care of yourselves, and never stop the fight. Much Love to all of my readers & Power to the People! <3