11/18/2020
I’ve struggled for a while trying to find the right words to say. Every day we see POC taken by our own police force, beaten, treated unfairly, and the list goes on. Not one thing I say can take back those lives or the pain they have suffered but what I hope for is to make a difference in our future. I reached out to a friend of mine and asked her to share her own story, read it below.
“I am not only a woman of color but I am also an Immigrant. At just the age of 10 I migrated from Cape Verde islands to the United States, leaving all of my family behind and met my Father in the states.
Leaving my family behind was hard enough, having to grow up in a country full of racism and a diverse Society didn’t make it easier. I did not know a bit of English. I remember being bullied and feeling isolated and less than others. As I grew older I soon started to realize that it wasn’t that I was less than anyone else it was that I looked and sounded different. Some treated me in poor ways...The way I was talked to, the tone that was used and the disrespect. This still happens daily in everyday life as an adult. When you start to pay really close attention you can read someone’s body language, you see they are bothered by just your presence because of the way you look, the color of your skin, the type of hair you have and how you dress.
Also, now being a mom of a beautiful little black girl is scary. I want her to grow up knowing who she is and where her roots came from. I want her to know that her skin color, hair texture, her features and kind heart are what makes her as beautiful as she is.
There’s racism everywhere we look even when we don’t see it. Being colored and from another country in the U.S. is truly challenging. We have to work harder. We shouldn’t judge others by the color of their skin or where they came from. We need to stand as one and watch the world change.”
Be the change we need 🙏🏾🙏🏽🙏🏿