Friday Fictioneers 3/8/2018 Save Yourself
Being Black sometimes comes with the burden of not knowing who you are and where you came from. Some cases, we are penalized for trying to find this information. Sometimes, even when we are successful in gathering knowledge it becomes another challenge trying to get that knowledge known. To know that others have come and gone before, to uncover, to mourn and to celebrate history, sometimes burns, in a way that can't really be described. And until Blackness isn't a thing to be hated, history will keep holding us back.
Save Yourself 100 words
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| Photo by Sandra Cook |
All Sharif could feel was his resentment. Countless buildings around Europe are devoted to the Jews. Yes, they died for no reason. Yes, it is tragic and the world should never forget. Yet his people were shunned for wanting to know, to remember their history.
"Who saved us?" He murmured as the guide took them passed some trees.
The older lady next to him whispered. Her voice frail and shaky like her spotted hands, "You're still in chains. You have to save yourself.”
Friday Fictioneers is hosted by the ever lovely Rochelle Wisoff Fields over at Addicted to Purple.
Dear Atiya,
ReplyDeleteYour story touched me, although I felt a bit of a slam on mine. I wish I could wipe out racism. Someone close to me made a comment the other day about being irritated that two black guys made an illegal U-turn in front of him. My blood boiled. What difference did their color make? He'd never have said, "two white guys." All I can do is apologize for the sins of my people. No one is above it. At any rate, a good one.
Shalom,
Rochelle
Rochelle,
DeleteWhile it would seem like a very harsh slam on yours, I assure it is not meant to be that way. What Sharif and I, because I am Sharif want, is to be able to walk on to a plantation and say, "this is where my family member landed after they were taken. " The thing in doing that, aside from not knowing who he is she was, is that even trying to find that information is often met with resistance. We're reminded that we get a month, so we should be happy with that.
Those are the chains. That month should be enough for me, and I should never want to know more. It's another form of oppression. My history or my complicty; that's why the old lady says, I have to save myself.
It is indeed a sad and most infuriating thing to be rebuffed this way. I could not even pretend to feel what you feel.
ReplyDeleteAnd your last two sentences say so much. He may be holding himself back from finding his truth.
That is a way to look at this. Is he still in chains because he is afraid to look or is he not free because he isnt allowed to be free? Another question to ask is who is the frail older lady that replies to him? What does she see in Sharif- An angry Black man, or a soul crying silently? Why does she answer him?
DeleteGood story, with strong content. I wholly agree with the last two sentences - ultimately we have to choose freedom and happiness for ourselves. However, in the case of prejudice, those of us who are privileged and white must not seek to avoid our responsibility for redressing the wrongs in society. We all need to work together.
ReplyDeleteThat was an excellent issue to highlight. I hope you will write more on the theme of racism (as well as many other things, of course!)
With best wishes
Penny