Friday, December 30, 2005
Nia! (NEE-yah)
Nia -- Purpose. The call for us to build and develop community.Recently I have resolved to police my own vocabulary on this issue. I get impatient now when I hear another Black person implore "what we ought to do" for the Black community. Please tell us instead what you are doing. In my mind, that's the essence of Nia.
If you can articulate a purpose that you will stand behind, I will follow or collaborate with you if that purpose speaks to my heart and I am able to contribute. When I have a purpose to build and develop our community, I will share what I'd like to see happen and contribute myself towards making the purpose real.
For instance, when it comes to the response to Hurricane Katrina, I try not to talk in the language of "what we ought to do." Instead I try to talk in terms of what I believe I should do. What will you do?
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First thing you have to do, is never ask what I can do for the black community? It should be what can I do for the community?
If you act like race matters you are racist. Race doesn't matter.
Right, race doesn't matter in America - and neither does gravity...
How can you ask someone to do for a community without specifying (or implying) what that community is?
If a person wants Black communities to assimilate and disappear, it's not going to happen by denying use of race as a community category.
In fact, such active denials reinforce the motivations to sustain Black communities.