We are already into the third month of 2021, and ideas are percolating around the Ground Truths collaborative project possibilities! The narrative that is severely pressing on me at this point in my life as a mature woman, mom of an almost 20-year old daughter, a 24-year old son, and the daughter of a mom who is two-years shy of being on this planet for 100-years, is racism! It’s as if it is yelling from the mountain tops, and looking directly into my being. As it rages back into my years as a youth in my nativity, reminding me that I moved around in blindness to the fact that it was always right beside me! Racism is the constant theme and thread that has been running through the conversations – strong – that I’m having with my colleagues by phone, along with the back-to-back COVID-19 lifestyle Zoom meetings! While we are discussing safety issues and concerns that exist on our streets within our communities, the lack of crosswalks, bike lanes, unethical and even deadly enforcement, ticketing, and the need for more green spaces, there is no doubt that racism is the underlying culprit! In mostly all cases, it is racism that has created these social and environmental injustices. What is resonating within me tonight, is the question of just how our mobility aka movement as Black Lives and BIPOC has been tampered with and impacted by diverse forms of trauma. It makes me question how severe the damage is per our psyche in this place called America, when outdoors and in movement, compared to our White neighbors, friends, colleagues, and White America.
I acknowledge that this observation does curiously lead me down the rabbit-hole of thinking about how this reality feeds-off of our historical past? 1619, the 1740 Negro Law, the Fugitive Slave Act 1793 and 1850, the Supreme Court’s 1857 Dred Scott vs.Sandford decision, and the 1876 Turf Protection Law – and the not so distant Senate Bill 1070 passed in Arizona, in 2010, the enacted House Bill 2281? These are just a few of the horrific injustices that have intersected into the areas of mobility and our historic narrative that have oppressed Black Life for over 400 years.