The American Ideal.
Freedom and liberty and democratized living...it's a better way to live than how most do on the globe. (Better in the 'human experience being achieved' sense, or at least having a clear shot at it.)
...and then I have to remember:
If I DEMAND that you live how I do, I am a dictator, colonializing you and all you know. There's no two ways about it.
That frame of mind:
Live like me
Think like me
You won't be happy/free/safe until you ____ like me.
What are we really saying?
Part of the purest freedom that is exists in the mind and the way I choose to express my humanity, i.e. how I live and where.
Then, there is this ideal we were taught in civics class. Liberty is by definition the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views.
I’m a product of black slaves, being in America of no choice, grateful for certain aspects, angry and fucking exhausted of so many others.
Queer black women SURVIVE the American ideal. We don't LIVE it. A select few of us cross over into a ‘good life’ or a ‘living my best life' type of existence, but only if we play and dance a certain way?
Why can't people see that?
Read something from a friend from Guyana today. Made me think of this.
July 4th versus Juneteenth
What's your 'freedom experience' ?
Who told you you were free? And how do you know you are? When did it get declared for you?
Take this weekend off and think about it.
~T