For the last 4 years, while building my business. I have been a substitute teacher in the New Britain school district. Last Monday I was in a first grade classroom of Arabic, African American, Caucasian, and Hispanic children and I read to them Martin’s Big Words, They looked so confused . They couldn’t believe people were treated so badly for just having a different skin color. The idea of such discrimination was in their words “silly”.
I know that discrimination still exists, and I am privy to the fact as a Black woman that there are still biased and close minded people in this world, but that’s not my motivation for this blog post. I just for one day want to celebrate what Dr. King, and those who fought with him, set in motion.
I Wish He Could See My Family
My family is a beautiful form of diversity. My heritage alone is a living and breathing United Nations. On top of that, my sister married into an Italian/French family, which resulted in my stunning nieces and my brother married a half Puerto Rican, which also resulted in two beautiful keepers of my heart. I say this not because race is a big deal to my family, but because skin color is not what makes us family it is our unified love for the New York Football Giants that does (some root for the Seahawks but we still love them) . In all seriousness, my family has always been known for our character and not our skin tone, just as Dr. King had dreamed.
I Wish He Could See My Business
Not that long ago people who looked like me were not allowed to share space with those who had smaller amounts of melatonin. I, and others who look like me, get to work with and not just for companies in the cities Jim Crow laws once governed. I get to capture love between couples that were at one time considered an abomination by some to the God who loves them dearly. I wish Dr. King could see how diversity is now celebrated in the wedding industry. Yes. we can go further and take more steps, but I think we are living his dream out more and more each day.
I Wish He Could See Today
I wish he could see how his words and deeds changed the world forever. He could turn on the tv and see shows like This Is Us, and see how he inspired this country to progress. He could walk the streets he saw friends killed for being black and now see a black family living next door to a white family peacefully. He could sit down at a restaurant now owned by a black woman, that once dawned a “whites only” sign.
Today reminds us of how far we have come. It reminds us that love is the greatest weapon. Today celebrates a man who saw beyond the strife of current moments, but instead something greater. Through the eyes of love and a disdain for injustice, he saw in his heart what I get to see in my life everyday,
Thank you Dr. King for standing for dreaming big. I just wish you were here to see it.
Til Next Time
Raina
