What Doesn't Kill You ....

Whenever my two daughters and I are riding together, there is usually a minor skirmish for control of the radio. I'm a nester; I have a favorite station, which plays R&B, and I stay at that location on the dial. My oldest, the driver, jumps from station to station, hunting for tunes, with my youngest back seat station suggesting, when she hears songs she likes on any of the stations.

Since I'm outnumbered and since my oldest claims my music and National Public Radio unnerve her and, if subjected to listening to it, it may cause her to have an accident, I am almost always besieged by an endless barrage of music that, for the most part, I'm continually wondering to myself how and why anyone chose to give most of these artists contracts!

If, by chance, I do express an appreciation for any song or artist, most often my act of enjoying that song or artist earns that song or artist an automatic demotion from being liked to 'diss' status by the girls! If I like it, in our house, that's the kiss of death!

So, as we make our rounds and with determination as I steel myself for the duration of the ride, my mind usually engages in some form of out of body activity and in this case, the other day, my thoughts turned to more serious contemplation when I heard an old adage amended in a line of a Kanye West song.

Whenever I think of the conditions of those of us of African descent in the Diaspora, mainly when I think of us here in the U.S., I can compose a very long list of struggles we have overcome, beginning with our forced emigration to this land. Every day, month, year, decade, century since our arrival here has resulted in the need to develop adaptations and make adjustments to continue to survive. As time marches on, we encounter a variety of situations of the same nature, yet each presents its own unique sets of challenges.

No, we aren't physically enslaved any longer but, as a group, we are the recognizable representation of the foundation upon which this country was built and because of that, we will always be entrenched in some form of exercise meant to prove something to someone, if we allow it to be so.

We must take others, and their beliefs regarding us, out of the center of our universe, which results in us looking outside ourselves for validation and proclaim that we are a self determinant people and that we will continue to survive because we know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, like old folks used to say, what don't kill you, makes you stronger!