Once again, I have refrained from publishing my scheduled post. Blame it on the Super Bowl, I am a fan of my team the Las Angeles Raiders, although they will be forever in my heart the Oakland Raiders. This Super Bowl was historic for the first time in history both the starting quarterbacks were Black. We all know the outcome; the Kansas City Chiefs won their second Super Bowl. I ain’t mad at em!

I was invited to a Super Bowl party by a friend, and I was acquainted with everyone who attended. We socialized before the game, enjoyed dinner, drank some wine, and conversed while waiting for the game to start. In all reality, I don’t recall the statement I made which led one of the people present to reply, “you’re just being woke”. My thought was what the hell is he talking about? I responded, “woke? what does that mean?”. He replied, “I was just trying to get a reaction from you, and I see that I did.”

Okay before I share what happened next, for those of you who don’t know, I say what is on my mind, most of the time I can state my point without “going there”, so I counted to ten and responded, “you are aware there are multiple meanings of the word woke.” All the while in my mind I was thinking time to teach some lessons, thus I began.

Woke is a verb, a past tense of the word awake, i.e. I had to drink a few cups of coffee to stay woke this morning. Clearly, I knew he was not referring to that definition of woke, but as I said it was time to teach. Woke is also an adjective, having an active awareness of systemic injustices or prejudices especially involving the treatment of ethnic, racial, or sexual minorities.

Woke in slang terms means being aware of the facts or true situation, (sometimes used facetiously). I then went on to say, I understand you are referring to, being aware of systemic injustices or prejudices. By that time a woman walked up who overheard the conversation and wanted to know the meaning of woke, I shared with her the meaning stated above.

She continued to stay around to engage in the conversation, they were of Latino heritage, I encouraged them to start looking at other sources for information and knowledge of the laws being pushed forward to strip away so many of our Civil rights fought for in the sixties, I recall it all as I was a teenager at the time. My parents were active in the movement, especially my mother. She was a participant at the March on Washington.

My date who is visiting from out of town looked a little anxious, as the discussion went on. The gentleman who I was engaged in conversation with, and several others had never heard the Black National Anthem before. I then jumped on my bandwagon and shared some Black History. As well I encouraged them to seek news from other sources than mainstream media.

As the lesson concluded, I encouraged those engaged in the conversation to seek alternative resources to find the truth. To look at the slow removal of our rights in this country, women losing the right to make a decision on if they want to carry a child, or the latest example being Gov. Ron DeSantis of Fla attempting to kick all Chinese citizens out of the state. Laws are already in place to prevent certain books from being available in many school libraries.

As stated above, I was a child of the Civil Rights Movement and saw the struggles and torture my ancestors went through so I could be where I am today. Our children will be our saving grace. I passed on to my children what my parents taught me, you don’t judge a person by their outside appearance. You look at their heart to determine who they are. I in turn passed that bit of wisdom on to my children. Two topics I prefer not to discuss at a social gathering are religion and politics, but when the opportunity presents itself, I will take it to share some knowledge.

Today, I have seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, all except one grandchild are of mixed ethnicity. Our children love who they love no matter the race, creed, or color. All of us who wish to have peace and harmony in the future should be and stay woke! There is no doubt both good and bad people in this world, but concentrate on the good, concentrate on the love, let us all come together and may we all stay WOKE!

Love, Peace, and Blessings💖