Black History Month: 'My ancestors survived. I can, too'
For Black History Month, we're exploring history and identity through the lens of joy. Black joy is the ability to love and celebrate black people and culture, despite the world dictating otherwise. Black joy is liberation.
» READ MORE: PJ Thomas
I was in Florida, around 2000, and we had just started the magazine maybe three years or so before. I was extremely tired. You know, when you're first in business and you're working, you know, 15-hour days? I was on a press trip. And they had given us some free time. We were supposed to be going to take a golf lesson, but I just went and stood by the ocean and sat there a minute and talked to the ancestors.
I asked them for strength. I always ask them to allow me to draw from their strength. First, I thank them. And I tell them, I know you know how I'm feeling. I know that you know that although this is probably nothing like you endured, for me at this moment, I'm tired. And I need to be able to draw from your strength. That's what I always do, any time when I'm by the Atlantic.
The moment I first felt that standing by the Atlantic Ocean, it's like I could hear them speak to me, calling me "daughter." Saying, "Daughter, rest. Take from us what you need. And go on." I always feel empowered.
I'm Christian, and I go to church. I'm not ancestor worshipping or spirit worshipping or any of that. But I do believe in the spirits of those who have gone before me. I do believe that I get my strength and my knowledge and my will and my tenacity -- I believe that I get all of that knowing what they did for me.
They survived. I can, too.
On a trip to Cuba in November, I visited a fort that looked out at the Atlantic and a coffee plantation a black woman ran. I felt so proud of my people for always being able to make a way out of no way. And that's what I saw in Cuba. And I compare that to what we have gone through here in the States and what we continue to go through. Just how our people are able to be so resilient.