I should have taken a move made by Angela Renee White a.k.a. Blac Chyna and named my son King and given him my last name, King Queen! Smh....lol! Ok, that sounds weird but very regal and majestic. I like the sound of a noble name or title for my son! I haven't checked with ancestry.com or my family genealogy tree recently, but I'm pretty sure my ancestors, brought to this country via the Middle Passage, descended from royalty. I feel it in my spirit. Just as Muslim ruler, born in Guinea, Abdul-Rahman ibn Ibrahima Sori who, in 1788, was captured, kidnapped, and forced into chattel slavery in Mississippi, certainly, many of our forefathers and foremothers came from noble lineage. How could we ever know or not know? During enslavement, oftentimes, our family records were not worthy of being recorded by our ancestors' owners other than a fake first name, age, and occupation. That's another story for another blog post! For the record or lack thereof, I claim my royal lineage making my son royalty too. Speaking of royalty, I should have made a move like Chris Brown and named my daughter Royalty, Royalty Queen! Lol...I digress. I love to hear scholars and educators say, "our history does not begin with slavery." Amen!!! That is the most absolute, true statement I've ever heard. Our history is so deep, so fascinating, so full of phenomenal leaders and superior chieftain, how can it be denied? Well, we know it can be denied when we are detached from our ancestral homeland and don't get to tell, teach, or record our history for our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. When we don't get to pass our history down, generation after generation, it becomes a lost history or a history diluted by the false notions of white superiority and black inferiority. Today, how can I teach my son, once my beautiful little black boy, now a strong-willed and determined young black man that he is royalty, he is of noble lineage, he is great, he is the descendant of kings and queens? How can I convince him of this when American media tells him otherwise? When five weeks ago he watched George Floyd take his last breath under the knee of a cop, witnessed Eric Garner cry out "I can't breathe" and is of the generation that watched Trayvon Martin's murderer walk away a free man. Why would he ever believe his own mother when he sees otherwise? This moment hurts. While raising children comes with joys and pains this pain is different, it's intense, numbing, and gut-wrenching. A pain that I have difficulty moving past to explain to my young king that he is great, he is worthy, he is loved. My little black boy, my young black man, my prodigious black king you are special and I love you my noble son.
