Hear me out before you go, just give me 5 minutes. There are so many things this generation has no idea were once illegal. I say this because I love everything about history and the changes because of past events. And as I continue in this gratitude journal series, there are a few things that I can do freely and I’m grateful for.
1. Voting
As a History student I could not paddle the opportunity to school these kids… Many citizens of countries (because this does not only happen in the Caribbean) do not vote. Now, I don’t get into political debates for the sake of my health lol. But our ancestors had to endure so much that them fighting for the freedom to vote for who they wanted to rule their country is a big deal to me. Many people sacrificed their life, their “morals” and their norms to be where we are today. As a person who is knowledgable about this and knows that there was a great fight for us to get to where we are, I am grateful that today I am able to vote freely.
2. Marriage
Marriage was once illegal. We couldn’t marry as black people. There was a time that we couldn’t get married. I hope you guys are understanding what this means. Like, it was illegal. This was only for the preffered race. To go a bit deeper, interracial marriage was not legal in the United States until 19… exactly. That was “just the other day”. Imagine being told that your love for someone was not able to be brought before God. I- I know we live in a generation that does not really fancy marriage or see it as a need as previous generations, but I want us to think of the ridicule and scorn that some interracial couples “experienced”. Now, I put this in quotation because it is crazy to me that this still happens today. It would be ignorant of me to say this has passed or we as a people have gotten over this hurdle. Black love is good, but let us not limit that love. Race should not be a dealbreaker for love.
3. Education
In my Personal IG bio, I have that I’m intellectually curious. I said that because I realised that I personally love learning. I don’t hate school, and I know I lost some of you here, but I try to learn soemthing in my spare time. I love knowing a little bit more. I also really value education because listening to some of the older people around me and how school was for them, I realise how different the school system was for them. When I say this I don’t mean the structure has improved, because I did come to an understanding that the school system has been “technically” the same for the past 100 years. Our technology is constantly “advancing” and we still use chalkboard in school?? Anyway, some of the things that I learn now at school our grandparents learnt on their own. My grandmother told me that at school the children washed and cooked lunches. That’s so interesting to me. But yes. A lot of us also take education for granted. I know that there is a price tag on it but education is and never will be limited to school. We have our phones and don’t know how to send documents on WhatsApp. We want to know how to do something and we don’t download books about it. We want to know what something a news reporter said, and we don’t ask Siri. Like seriously, our interest and then quick disinterest in finding out bothers me. One of my biggest issues with society. NO ONE READS ANYMORE. But that is for another time.
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