we are more alike, my friends, than we are unlike.

The title reflects my theme for Black History Month. A long time ago (and I mean long ago), Devious Diva wrote an entry about attending the 6th African Food, Music, and Handcrafts Festival in Athens, and she interposed pictures from the festival with a poem by Maya Angelou that ended with those words. It looked like such a wonderful experience that the collection and the poem stuck with me through all these months. We often have nexus between groups, and I think it’s time to call attention to that. It’s always time, but particularly this month.

Since schoolwork has me constrained for time and has shortened my attention span considerably (including the fact I still have legal minds to e-mail; I haven’t forgotten!), I want you all to help me find coalitions between the black community and other races. If you have tips for me, please e-mail me and let me know; if you’re interested in posting something here, that’s even better! I’m sticking with a racial lens because a) it’s Black History Month and the focus is mostly on the racial struggle and b) issues within areas like sexual orientation, class, levels of ability, religion, gender fall within these broader socially imposed categories of people. A person is never black OR gay, poor OR pagan in the restrictive sense that one cannot live both realities at the same time. I’m hoping that the other nuances of identity will come out within the affiliations and the developments.

Why do I want to start this theme this month (and beyond)? I’m sick of watching the media draw wedges between races for profit and sensationalism. I think that important intraracial coalitions have been overshadowed by tales of animosity and ancient rifts stemming back to…colonization? Maybe before then? We’ve done good work together, and we can still do good work together. We have to be straight on the sources of our problems, and the sources are often systemic. Not always, but often. The sooner we recognize common root causes, the better our fight will be to change those causes to something positive for all of us. And no one has to sacrifice racial identity to move forward this way. (Or, of course, that’s my opinion on it.)

A lot of my latest posts have been very I-centered — my sexuality, my politics, my voice (and its stifling or languishing), etc. Part of the reason I put the news feeds on my sidebar and I’ve started a page with media contacts is I want this space to be more about the brands of crazy whirling around in my brain. But I need help working on that because I’ve lived in my brain all my life, and the world still seems unfamiliar. I’m only 22. I feel like a toddler sometimes reading the news: I just want my cocoa (laced with Bailey’s like all toddlers have), my music, and maybe a book with pictures to clear my head and to dream about flying machines made of feathers and bubble gum. It likely needs an engine — I’ll tack on a mini fan to it. And then I’ll fly to Hershey Park, PA so I can refill my cocoa. Maybe eat an amusement park worker for being dressed as a candy bar. Then it will start raining (!) and my mini fan will short out, leaving me with no other option but to build a house of chocolate until the rain stops. And start eating the furniture when the rain seems like it won’t end. (I always wind up fat in my imagination. Art imitating life? Hmm…maybe I’ll invent nonfat chocolate in my dream…)

On a completely unrelated topic to the above (but only because I suck at transitional phrases that make them related), Latoya at Racialicious has been writing some excellent political commentary pieces lately. I may not agree with her analysis of race and class issues in the pop culture/social arena, but I’ve liked her latest articles. Here’s the one from today.

And I just say how I love Oprah’s gift of oration? I always have, even if I don’t agree with everything she has to say. But it always comes from her, you know? She’s real.