from Getting Smart by Antonio Boyd Jun 20, 2022
What the experts say:
Janet Hefney, an ADHD life coach, said, “My Black son’s ADHD diagnosis resulted in numerous rejections and deprived him of a normal life. As his mother, I felt a sense of defeat for many years. The love I have for my son prompted me to act, which enlightened me to the fact that education is a potent tool for overcoming any obstacles in life.
My son’s difficulties have taught me that as Black people, we cannot continue to wait for the government and/or a system to save us. It is up to us to put forth the effort required to achieve the desired outcomes for our children. It is our obligation and responsibility to learn about our ancestry and to explain it to our children with love and compassion. Keeping our children from hearing our story will only harm them. Our narrative protects and empowers us against the known and unknown aspects of who we are. The truth of who you are will allow you to navigate your life with dignity, self-respect, and pride, and will provide you with a clear understanding of how to manage adversity.”
It is time we revisited Dr. King’s vision to create “Beloved Communities”:
“Love is creative and redemptive. Love builds up and unites; hate tears down and destroys. The aftermath of the ‘fight with fire’ method which you suggest is bitterness and chaos, the aftermath of the love method is reconciliation and creation of the beloved community. Physical force can repress, restrain, coerce, destroy, but it cannot create and organize anything permanent; only love can do that. Yes, love—which means understanding, creative, redemptive goodwill, even for one’s enemies—is the solution to the race problem.” — Martin Luther King, Jr., 1957
Comments