Introduction

So, here I am. A human being at the midpoint of life who has recently experienced profound grief and loss attempting to forge a new personal, professional and spiritual path in this complicated world.

I am a feisty and spirited woman (I come from a long line of them) and still on my healing journey making discoveries about myself and others daily. Trying hard to adhere to the Four Agreements.

I am a single mother to one teenage son and one adult son in college pursuing a career in journalism and communications. Fortunately, they reflect confident and well adjusted young men and raising them has certainly been my greatest accomplishment. As a mother of white sons, the primary lessons have been to first “do no harm” and then, “leverage your privilege for the greater good.”

Living as a white person inside a racial caste system comes with many blinds spots. I try to position myself around Black people who hold me accountable for those and from whom I can learn. My absolute shero white woman doing antiracism education is Jane Elliott; my writing is inspired by her truth-telling style.

I am a Florida resident of 24 years and a long-time public school parent in Alachua County, the most racially segregated county in the State of Florida, despite the University of Florida being in its backyard. This is not an uncommon phenomonen in cities and towns with major public research universitities and very diverse student bodies, but this does not trickle down to the local Black community.

I have observed the conservative Florida legislature battle the teaching of Black history and gender studies on campuses like New College of Florida. As an educator by training, I am appalled at the politicization of the AP African American Studies course that is slated to go global in 2024 which will usher in an explosion of interest in Black history worlwide. This is so long overdue, but better late than never.

Dawn Williams, dean of Howard University's School of Education, said that AP African American Studies consists of a "curriculum that's been vetted for years by experts in the field." In 2022, Henry Louis Gates Jr. stated, "Nothing is more dramatic than having the College Board launch an AP course in a field—that signifies ultimate acceptance and ultimate academic legitimacy... AP African American Studies is not CRT. It's not the 1619 Project. It is a mainstream, rigorously vetted, academic approach to a vibrant field of study, one half a century old in the American academy, and much older, of course, in historically Black colleges and universities."

My own mother born in 1946 was tragically murdered in November 2018. She was a 1968 graduate of Brandeis University, a few years behind civil rights icon and scholar Angela Davis. Prior to that, she studied at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria in 1964 with another civil rights activist, James Meredith, and wrote letters home mentioning him. Later, they reunited when he was a law student at Columbia University in the late 60s. My mother was heavily influenced by the Civil Rights Movement as a college student at the time and instilled antiracism education and values in me at a very early age, for which I am profoundly and eternally grateful.

After leaving predominantly white male academia after 23 years in 2020, I became an antiracism and antisexism activist which caused me to be censored and permanenently banned on LinkedIn (you can’t talk about racism and sexism in the workplace). I am also an author, educator, historian, humanitarian, photographer and writer. The last four months have been an enormous labor of love, as I finally leaned into my ancestral calling to digitally archive 403+ years of Black history and personal family history that will form the basis of my writings.

On a personal note, I am a highly emotion-driven and intuitive Cancer Sun, Leo moon. I’m a runner and yogi and a life-long learner of the communicative, energetic, intuitional, relational and spiritual realms. I am an enthusiast of raw honesty, transparency and vulnerability which makes humans more humble and relatable.

I am new to this platform and thank you for your patience as I learn the ropes. I’m eager to engage in meaningful and throughtful dialogue and build a sense of community with other writers. As William Faulkner wisely noted, “the past is never dead. It’s not even past.” This is why I teach Black history. Thank you a million times over for reading.