2019 — The Year We Clear the Way
for Black Children to Flourish
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“Somebody told a lie one day. They made everything Black, ugly and evil.” — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1967)
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"Let's mark 2019 as the year in which we break completely with the lie." – Enola G. Aird, CHN Founder and President
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Happy New Year, Sisters and Brothers. Let’s make 2019 the start of a new era in the history of Black people.
Black people
Dr. King was right. That lie was created to justify the enslavement of Africans and the exploitation of Africa. That lie has demeaned our lives for centuries to the point where, even in 2019, doing anything while Black can be dangerous, and all too often deadly.
It is well past time for us to free ourselves and our children from the lie.
August 20, 2019, will mark the 400th anniversary of the first recorded forced arrival of Africans in Virginia, the place in the United States where the lie was developed and refined.
Community Healing Network is calling on Black people everywhere to make this the year in which we break completely with the lie. In 2019, let’s declare that we will no longer accept the lie and will do everything in our power to overcome and overturn it.
Since CHN was founded in 2006, its aim has been to engage a critical mass of Black people on a journey toward freedom from the lie by 2019, so that by 2020 we as a people can begin to see ourselves in a whole new light.
Last October, we launched our
Global Truth Campaign and Tour
to equip Black adults with the tools to help Black children
Defy the Lie
of Black inferiority and
Embrace the Truth
of Black humanity.
We’ll be in Richmond, Virginia, in August for our 2019 Valuing Black Lives Global Emotional Emancipation Summit. We will stop there not just to reflect on the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Africans in the U.S., but to make a formal psychological and spiritual break with the lie.
Dr. King said, "Nobody else can do this for us. If the Negro is to be free, he must move down into the inner resources of his own soul and sign with the pen and ink of self-assertive manhood his own emancipation proclamation."
He also said that "any movement for the Negro’s freedom that overlooks this necessity [of psychological freedom] is only waiting to be buried.”
King's language is dated, but his point is clear. This is work that must be done in order for us to move forward as a people, and only we can do it.
Let's make 2019 the year we intensify our collective journey toward what Dr. King called “psychological freedom,” and we call "emotional emancipation." Because 400 years are more than enough, and our children and our ancestors are waiting.
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Dr. King's Call for Psychological Freedom
By Chandra Roxanne, Outreach Coordinator, CHN
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Welcome to 2019, Brothers and Sisters of the Diaspora! And Happy King Day.
AGO! ("Are you listening?")
In his 1967 speech called
Where Do We Go from Here?,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, said that "first, we must massively assert our dignity and worth” if we want to flourish economically and politically. He appealed to Black people to fight for our “psychological freedom.” He defined it as "
a firm sense of self-esteem."
He said that teachers perpetuate a “false sense of superiority” that encourages White children to “adore” themselves, and “a false sense of inferiority” that encourages Black children to “despise” themselves. He called this “cultural homicide,” and declared that “as long as the mind is enslaved, the body can never be free.”
Freedom is our birthright, but we cannot fully claim it until we are “psychologically free.”
AME! ("I am listening.")
So, on this King holiday and in the days, months, and years to come, let’s re-dedicate ourselves to the crucial work of freeing our minds.
If you have already taken the pledge, then become an advocate for Black psychological freedom.
Share Dr. King's call with your family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers today.
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Colorism As
Emotional Abuse
By Jill Marie Snyder Secretary,CHN
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Emotional abuse
is any act including confinement, isolation, verbal assault, humiliation...or any other act that diminishes a persons sense of identity or self worth.
I feel a strong need to share this story because I can't stop thinking about it. A few days ago, I went to buy make-up and the sales person was African American. As she helped me figure out the best shade for me, she told me that I reminded her of her sisters who were my complexion and had freckles. She went on to say that they shunned her because of her brown complexion and didn't want to be seen with her to this day. She also told me that when her parents took the others in the family to the beach, she wasn't allowed to go because, "they didn't want me to get any darker."
One of Community Healing Network's core values is to speak truth to ourselves. We must recognize that colorism is a form of emotional abuse. It diminishes a person's sense of identity and self-worth. It causes real pain.
In CHN's Emotional Emancipation Circles, we often hear stories of the pain caused by colorism perpetrated by family members. In my opinion, it's the most hurtful form of racism we face as a people–because the racist abuse is perpetrated by the people who are supposed to love us unconditionally. Our healing from the legacies of enslavement and racism won't be complete until this abuse is stopped.
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Truth Tour Update
By Mosi Kamau Kitwana
Chair, CHN Global Truth Campaign and Tour Committee
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As the Chair of CHN’s
Global Truth Campaign and Tour
Committee, I am proud to invite you and your family to join with us in this campaign that calls the African Diaspora to
Defy the Lie
of Black inferiority and
Embrace the Truth
of Black humanity.
We are making exciting plans to take the
Global Truth Campaign and Tour
to Los Angeles, CA; Baltimore, MD; Toledo, OH; Pittsburgh, PA; and Rochester NY. International stops include the Republic of South Africa, Great Britain, and Cuba. We will share more about these stops as they are confirmed.
All of our Tour stops are important, but our August 20-22, 2019, stop in Richmond, Virginia, is significant because this is the place in the United States where the lie of Black inferiority was developed. In Richmond, we will pay tribute to our Ancestors, walk along the Trail of the Enslaved Africans, and pave the way to a future in which we and our children are emotionally emancipated and able to flourish.
The
Global
Truth Campaign and Tour
will present a unique series of events and experiences that we are designing to both sustain us and change us as people of African ancestry. It’s a commitment, a commemoration, a call to action, a training, and an inspiration to replace the lies about Black people with the truth. We do this to change our trajectory.
Join us in moving into a future where the humanity of African people is respected, admired, and honored, first and foremost by us, and then by the rest of the world. One day soon, we will apply our values and wisdom to sustain all of humanity.
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Embrace the Truth of
Black
Humanity
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BLACK IS
royal, Black
is pure, Black is right,
Black is bright, Black is noble,
Black is warm, Black is soothing like a balm, Black is calming like grandma's palm, Black is angelic, Black is holy, Black is omniscient, Black is omnipotent… Out from the velvetly depths of Blackness, all things began. After first creating
Black, God looked...then smiled and said, "Good is Black."
By Chandra Roxanne
Outreach Coordinator, CHN
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Take the pledge to
Defy the Lie. Embrace the Truth.
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Your donation
to CHN's
All Black Children Flourishing
Fund
will help us:
- Support our 2018-2020 Global Truth Campaign and Tour;
- Train 700 additional Emotional Emancipation (EE) Circle Facilitators; and
- Build a global online community to connect, support, and empower EE Circle Facilitators and other local leaders to act as catalysts for healing and wellness.
You can help create
a culture of emotional emancipation, healing, wellness, and empowerment in families and neighborhoods across the African Diaspora– so that Black children everywhere can move beyond surviving to flourishing.
LEGAL NOTICES:
Emotional Emancipation Circles, EE Circles, EECs, Breathe, Baby, Breathe, Clearing the Way for Back Children to Flourish, and all related CHN marks and logos are service marks owned exclusively--and stewarded--by Community Healing Network, Inc. Local EEC facilitators, trainers, hosts, and organizers are wholly independent, and are not employees, agents, partners, or affiliates of Community Healing Network, Inc. or CHN's primary collaborator, the Association of Black Psychologists.
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