Dear reader,
In our country, disguised as a Christian nation, a creative child is often looked at as rebellious and disobedient. I personally was not exempt from these adjectives and while it silenced me at times from being who I truly was, today I happily say it no longer burdens me. In fact, I wear them proudly for it is in these two words that history is made.
The definition of protest is civil disobedience produced by a crisis situation, creating productive dialogues between activists/citizens and government authorities. For clarity, quite simply protest equals change.
Our neighbors to the North are upset, creating the change they want to see in their country. And what do we do, we watch, post, support and rally behind them immediately, for the first time ever celebrating Juneteenth as if it wasn’t established in 1865.
While I am not exempt from this, and I can appreciate we are all being treated to nuggets of our culture that we were not privy to due to white privileges that rewrote our history for their benefits: the reality is, here at home, we are in need of so many social, political and educational changes as well and quite frankly not much is being done. Where are our protests, riots, walk outs, are demand for justice, AND while I’m here BPL, where are the lower rates you promised after the outages we suffered. Has COVID19 wiped out the memories of BLACKOUT Summer19?
Digressing…woooosaaaa.
Prior to being an entrepreneur, I paid heavy dues to my industry. Countless hours building the standards and procedures that many use today without credit or concern. I’ve been mentored and learnt from some who to date remain silent about what’s necessary, right and should be regulated. Many times I feel alone in the struggle to push industry conversations forward, especially being a female in an predominantly male industry. In my opinion, here in 2020, we are still experiencing the “watch culture”, those who prefer to watch and criticize, never participating, the “I’m staying in my lane folks” yet never truly doing that, constantly displaying the black crab syndrome, fueling irrelevant gossip, and untrue memes to overshadow the truth.
Yes, there are many of us who are frustrated with the antiquated systems, we sit in small groups and bare our ideas and hopes for progress. Yet we are still so isolated in our approaches to creating change in this country. We suffer from constant worry of the “theys” and “thems” who’s life purpose appears to be “reminding niggas” tearing us down, constantly jogging in place, unwelcoming of growth.
When we give our ideas we are met with “our country is still young, give it time” memos from those not ready to pass the baton.
I get it.
Generational wealth in our country amongst blacks is fairly new, and the reality is many of our leaders are still building the first generation of it so they can seamlessly transition to retirement. But isn’t this exactly what the slave masters did to the slaves? The unequaled distribution of wealth? Our economy cannot survive on this old colonial system that was not designed for our country specifically but passed down to us.
Designed to keep the people dumb so that they are dependent upon it.
It is time.
Our time.
The real peoples time.
And no, I make no political affiliations here. Measured distribution of wealth, makes it easier for families to educate and empower their households building a more sustainable economic well being for our country. We must support our local industries, reduce the exports of our natural resources. The effectiveness of a country at utilizing and exploiting its natural resources is a function of the skills of the labor force, type of technology and the availability of capital. Skilled and educated workers are able to use these natural resources to spur the growth of the economy.
We must invest education into our human resources, a skilled, well-trained workforce is more productive and will produce a high-quality output that adds efficiency to an economy. These are just a couple examples of changes we must create.
This system in place now will never boost economic growth for all citizens. The type we are so desperately in need of today.
I am not a writer, economist, or analyst. I am a citizen who’s purpose in life is to live to my highest potential preferably in the home and environment in which I was born. Just like our owners I too have dreams of leaving a legacy and wealth for my family. Dreams of which I build upon every day. But I/we cannot attain these dreams with the systematic design in place today.
We need change.
And we need it now. We need rebellious minds with strategic plans that push the agenda of a better country for ALL forward.
Excuse my French: But fuck all your funny memes and fake wokeness, your ability to be bought out under the table, the gossipers who are holding on to hearsays or mistakes like they are so perfect, the aspirational influencers who’s page only influences on what’s current to attain likes.
P.S we Cancer survivors survive this shit all year long not just in October!
Where my rebels at?
My fellow creatives, the introverts, the tail end baby boomers, millennials, the gen Zs, my lowkey hella tired peeps?? When do we demand justice right here in The Bahamas, from classisms, colorism, and colonialism.
When is our Juneteenth?
Since we are a “ Christian nation”, to quote TD Jakes, the Bible says, “ He always started with one.”
Let us be heard.
With love and light.
Megan M. Minus
