Three Reasons to Not Care

Overwhelmed. In describing how I felt after hearing the Supreme Court’s decisions this week, I describe myself as overwhelmed. In our country, it seems that we receive negative news every day. Caring has become a full-time job, and I'm officially quitting. After this week of judicial decisions, I have come up with three reasons in defense of my resignation.

1. I get to be a skeptic! When we don’t care, we go through life without hoping for anything better. As a skeptic, I wouldn’t look for justice for people who don’t have access to tutors, standardized testing courses, and legacy benefits. I can resign myself to knowing that when you work hard, that doesn’t mean you’ll be able to have better. I get to resign myself to always being behind and never being able to fulfill all the things that God has placed in me to leave this world better than I found it. When I don’t care, I don’t have to hope or work for the better.

2. I can live a boring life. When we care about ourselves and our society, we work to make things better. This brings adventures and opportunities that I can forego when I decide not to care. I protect myself from the excitement of changing voting laws that make the ballot box available to everyone. I won’t see the next generation enter careers previously off-limits to them. And I can resign myself to not living in a neighborhood that doesn’t want me there. When I give up caring, I can succumb to living a boring life, reaching for only what is put in front of me by someone else.

3. I get to give up my humanity. The ability to feel is one of the greatest gifts God gave us in distinguishing us from other parts of creation, but those feelings come with complications. The possibility of feeling the satisfaction of making the world more just for somebody else is reason enough to not not care. Hoping that doing justice results in a more diverse world is reason enough to not not care. And to hang on to the best parts of humanity that are present in each of us is reason enough to not not care.

We’ve been given plenty of reasons not to care, but not caring requires me to give up too much of myself, and I’m unwilling to pay that. So here are three reasons not to care, but I don’t think they’re good enough reasons to stop caring!

Juneteenth and a National Reminder

An old African proverb says, “Until the lion tells the story, the hunter will always be the hero.” This is why Juneteenth is so important. We have statues, flags, and even holidays that point to the confederacy of this nation. We erect symbols of oppression to celebrate one of the darkest periods in America’s history. But on June 17, 2021, President Biden signed a bill that is a critical step in letting the lion tell her story of slavery, the Civil War, and emancipation. In signing this bipartisan bill, Americans are asked to “acknowledge and condemn the history of slavery in our Nation and recognize how the impact of America’s original sin remains.” Even with the bill’s signing, many don’t know what Juneteenth is, why it matters, or the woman who fought for decades to ensure this country’s memory is accurate and holistic.

On January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect, freeing all enslaved peoples across the States. While the news traveled and was enforced in many Southern states, it was 2.5 years before it reached Galveston, Texas, and was accompanied by federal soldiers to ensure compliance. On June 19, 1865, 250,000 people were finally freed from slavery. The day was later commemorated as “Juneteenth.”

While the holiday was widely known more in the South than in other regions of the States, too few people knew about the lag time. We weren’t told about the injustice of the wait poured into the wounds of people already subjected to enslavement, rape, and a host of dehumanizing practices. Lincoln signed the Emancipation, but there were slave owners that held out as long as they could until being forced to give freedom to people that never should have been enslaved in the first place.

In 2016, Ms. Opal Lee, the Grandmother of Juneteenth, had enough of the secrecy. She knew that wounds do not get healed if they stay covered up. Ms. Lee set out to walk from Fort Worth to Washington D.C. at a pace of 2.5 miles in the morning and the afternoon to signify the 2.5 years it took for slaves to be free from Galveston. Her walk increased awareness in communities along her route, and family members, concerned about her health, asked her to amend her plans by joining the local Juneteenth celebrations. While no change is ever achieved alone, if it were not for the efforts of Ms. Lee, many of us would still not know the significance of this day and the work necessary to secure a basic human right for Black Americans.

As you take time to celebrate today, in the words of Ms. Lee, I want to remind us if people have been taught to hate, they can be taught to love, and it is up to you to do it."

Can I See Me?

When I was growing up, a few things were normal to see. Men were doctors, and women were nurses. Men were principals, and women were teachers. Men were pastors and women, well, did everything else. Then I noticed it in color, too. White women were on magazine covers. Black women were only on Black magazine covers. White women were on beauty products. Black women's beauty products were hard to find. White girls were princesses, and Black girls were not.

That was until 1997 when Roger & Hammerstein gave us our first Black princess, with Brandy as Cinderella and Whitney Houston as her fairy godmother. It would take Disney a few years to catch up, but I could finally see myself as appropriate for the make-believe screen when Tiana became the princess that saved the frog in 2009 - and by then, I was grown! So it's more appropriate to say MY KIDS could finally see themselves and, more importantly, that their skin was beautiful and worth loving on the big screen.

With the announcement and subsequent blowback of Halle Bailey as the Little Mermaid in Disney's live-action remake, let's discuss why this is important. LaDawn Taylor, the real-life Tiana, explains the weight of representation, "I didn't always see myself as pretty or someone to look up to, but being Tiana showed me I was all this and more. It allowed me to be seen as Black and beautiful and accepted for who I was by people from all different cultural backgrounds and nationalities."

All little girls need this opportunity. To see themselves as pretty. Wanted. Valuable. Smart. Capable. And as a viable member of their communities and the world. Where do Black girls still need to see themselves? Do they need to see Black women on the organization's board you influence? Do they need to see themselves in more of the health industry? Do they need to see themselves leading research in the sciences?

In the words of Ms. Marian Wright Edelman, "You can't be what you can't see." Mrs. Edelman, a Spelman College and Yale Law School graduate, has spent a lifetime working to ensure that Black women and women of all colors can see themselves in areas where oppression has tried to keep us out. She has been a lot of first. The first Black woman admitted to the Mississippi Bar. The first Director of the Center for Law and Education at Harvard University. The first woman elected by alums as a member of the Yale University Corporation. She has spent a lifetime helping Black girls and young girls, in general, see themselves in places where injustice has said they do not belong.

We can influence how future generations of young ladies see themselves and if they see a route to fulfilling their purpose in the world. Disney is make-believe. We know that mermaids aren't real. The issue of representation is bigger than the Little Mermaid. It is about what a mermaid of color represents. It represents our progress when children of color can see themselves in spaces and on screens that have historically been off-limits. The blowback represents the miles we still have to go before we sleep.

Let's walk in the direction of resolve. Make plans to see The Little Mermaid on opening weekend when sales matter most. Regardless of your race, your attendance shows support for children who go underrepresented in so many other areas of life. It's a step of solidarity and unity for voices that go unheard. It's making yourself a part of progress.