Idc how many laws bigots pass, Black people gonna learn our history regardless! We learn our cultural history through our Elders, and have never relied on books written by white men to learn about who we were and where we’ve been as a people. Those are nice to have but we never needed them. They really out here thinking passing a handful of laws about what has never been taught in a classroom anyway is gonna what? Cut us off from our past? Make us as ignorant of the past as they long to be? Please! We’ve never relied on them to know or teach us about who we are.

We relied on our Elders.

I learned what it was like to live in Jim Crow Mississippi from my late grandmother. I learned about the speeches of MLK, the activities of the Black Panthers, and the righteous anger of Malcolm X from my mother, who passed away last year.

I’m not an Elder but I have reached the Respected Auntie stage, and have no intention of dying my hair back to black. It’s a mark that I’ve lived as long as I have. That I’ve seen and experienced things. One of my greatest moments of pride is when young people in the community refer to me (this childless woman) as Momma, because for them, I am. I often feel about the young people in my community as I would if I had kids. Exasperated, annoyed most often, but it’s still from a place of love.