As a Mother of a Black Son My Heart Aches
It takes another mother of a black son to know that it could have been my son lying on the street gasping his last breath as he pleads for his life and saying “I cannot breathe”. How a mother’s heart must ache from this scene.
Today is #blackouttuesday but I’m afraid we may need many, many more Tuesdays to move past the pain, hurt, injustice, and insensitivity that people show to each other.
Be it racial, tribal, class, sect, religion, or caste, humans have continually sought ways to abuse, repress, and dominate each other. How does one close their eyes to sleep without replaying that horrid scene?
As I look at the scared frightened eyes of the perpetrator’s mug shot, it seems that he too is horrified by his own act of cruelty and its life long consequences; thus my heart aches for his mother who has also lost a son due to his own senseless act of cruelty. What shame and horror his family must be going through. Oh, how I wish we could rewind the last eight days and start over.
Mother’s hurt for their sons in a unique way. You see under our skin colour we have the same passions, desires, hopes, dreams, aspirations and our hearts beat a similar rhythm. We all want our children to live long healthy and prosperous lives. We want others to be kind to our children and see the good in them. We want them to be good decent people who positively contribute to society.
We feel shame or embarrassment when our children fail and we celebrate their successes more than our own. We want to live in a safe, clean world and we want a society where it is safe for our children to thrive. One in which they are not judged harshly made to feel inferior or assumed guilty because of their skin colour.
So because of the oneness, I feel for all mothers, my heart aches for all mothers who are terrified that their sons’ lives may be threatened today. If you are a mother of a son, let me know how your heart feels today #blackouttuesday.
To Your Wellness
Joyce
