GNTL - "Full stop this colonial page..."

8/31/2023

GNTL / Grownups Noticing Their Lives

This GNTL is not to make us feel guilty but to remind us of our fire.

From two tweets I read lately: Between 1640 and 1807 Britain transported approximately 3.2 million African captives - of whom roughly 2.7 million survived to disembark - to the Caribbean, Brazil, and North and South America. Which equates to one half million people – 500,000 souls - dying during the Middle Passage from Africa to western hemisphere slavery.

In 2019 the Bahamas cut official ties with the crown of England. At the midnight transferal ceremony, Barbadian poet Winston Farrell gave Barbados these lines: “Full stop this colonial page. Some have grown up stupid under the Union Jack, lost in the castle of their skin.” Breaking with the colonial past “is about us, rising out of the cane fields, reclaiming our history.”

What’s going on too much around us is exactly this. Banning books. Removing or gutting history of non-white peoples and civilizations. Creating legal barriers between humans and justice. Removing women’s autonomy over their own bodies. Enabling the worst among us to direct the culture in which all of us must live.

Full stop this colonial page.

The castle of their skin.

Reclaim our history.

Be loud this holiday weekend with your family and friends. Say what’s true. Notice the small moments which are stuck in the past. Look for things to read, conversations to have, and paths on which to outrageously respect what’s true and next.

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