I am your daughter. I am here because you survive. You endured being kidnapped from our homeland. Shackled and imprisoned in holding cells. You endured crossing the Atlantic packed like sardines in the belly of ships named Desire, White Lion, and Henrietta Lee. They would bring you to a hell on earth. And you survive.
You cried, begged, prayed, moaned for deliverance and the kidnappers would not hear you. Some died of disease. Some leapt into the ocean and became food for sharks. But you survive. They stripped you naked forced you on to the auction block and the once proud you stood humiliated and demeaned as those who did not look like you placed bids for your body. But they could not own your soul. You survive.
You endured the sting of the lash, and lynching. You were raped by your kidnappers. You bore their children. And when they snatched the babies from your arms and headed for the auction block. You cried out in your mother’s grief. And none of them would hear you. You survive
You toiled in the cotton fields and rice paddies sun up … sun down. You cooked for the kidnapper’s, tended their children, and built their houses. There was nothing they could do without you, not even dress themselves. The ones who thought they owned you became wealthy from the sweat of your brow. No profit for you. And you survive.
They said you were free, but you were betrayed, locked out of America’s promise. You wandered in the wilderness of a powerful land. Denied the wealth that you created. And even with paltry earnings in desperate living conditions, you made a way out of no way. You fed, clothed, and educated your children. You survive.
Because you survive your sons and daughters are faithful mothers and fathers, great teachers, compassionate healers, super athletes, brilliant thinkers, courageous activists, wise leaders, gifted actors, writers, musicians and artists, profitable entrepreneurs, powerful law makers. We work in high places and low places. Our hearts are strong and we are lovers of humanity, even the ones who cannot love us back.
And we are heartbroken, disappointed, and desperate. We face many of the hardships you endured. We are grieving, poor, sick, and hungry. We are living on the street. Many of us are dying struck down by a virus, more deadly, than it needed to be, or from the lack of care we cannot afford. Many of our innocent men, women and children have been murdered by those who say they protect and serve.
Because you survive, we survive. When one of us falls, two step up. We are the strongest people on the planet. And there is nothing we cannot do. We will go on. We respect you. we honor you. We love you. And we will pass your legacy on to those who come after us.
Lutricia