Intentional Activities

🅡🅔🅟🅞🅢🅣
・・・
Black joy matters
Black dreams matter
Black voices matter
Black futures matter
Black mental health matters
All Black lives matter all the time.

I want to dedicate today to Black joy. There’s a lot of focus on suffering, and it shouldn’t be disregarded, but also know that we are more than that. We are more than trauma, and we are allowed to feel joy.

That joy is radical. Living in a system that is basically designed to oppress and to control, living your best life is revolutionary and liberating. It is a form of self-care. Be unrestricted. Be unapologetic. Love yourself, love life, and keep on moving forward.

“To resist the omnipresent, intrusive and pervasive nature of white supremacy, we must allow ourselves to be rebelliously joyous. Where society has told us to ‘be quiet,’ and that we’re ‘too loud’ and ‘too different,’ it is an act of resistance to revel in joy that they have spent much of history trying to take away from us.” - Chante Davis for British Vogue.

Friends in solidarity, don’t just get motivated by anger - you also have to be motivated to dismantle oppressive systems out of love for one another, out of wanting all of us to be able to be free. Stand beside us and SEE us. ❤️

Image description: illustration of a Black woman with Fulani braids and natural hair worn out in the back, wearing a maroon colored shirt that says, Black Joy Matters. Slide 1 has a green background, and Slide 2 has the same illustration with a pink background.

🤝Access without support is not opportunity.

I remember walking into my new faculty position and seeing this quote on my supervisor’s desk. I knew I was in the right place.

Often, calls for personal responsibility and for Black people to ‘pull themselves up by their bootstraps’ may not fully appreciate that development takes place in context. Those who succeed despite developmental odds and challenges do so with the support [‘boots’] of others.

So, the next time that you hear someone talk about how Black people ‘don’t have good work ethic’, and how ‘they worked hard to get to where they are’, ask them who/what helped to assist in their success…beyond the privilege that their skin color afforded them.

From generation to generation, without ‘boots’, we rise…we rise…we rise.

Always strive to help equip someone with ‘boots’.

It’s .

Tomorrow is never promised.

Tag someone below and use one word to tell them why you love them while you still can.

🌹: thanks for your kind heart...daily.

🤍”We accept the love we think we deserve.” ~ Stephen Chbosky

♥️

him: Come on Barbara, let’s walk down there.

me: No, we can’t because the sign says we can’t.

him: Do you see all those white people down there?...we’ll be fine. Are you coming?!

random white lady [inserting, after overhearing]: Oh, I go down there all the time...the police never say anything to me...just go!

In that moment, I became aware of the intersection of privilege I didn’t have, my ‘rule-follower’ behavior as a byproduct of the anxiety attached to racism, and a fearless husband/homie/lover/best friend who I would pretty much follow to the end of the earth.

Too often, we allow fear to keep us from living.

L♡ve makes life a little easier to navigate.

Sending some your way on this l♡ve day.

More life. More l♡ve. It’s

I l♡ve you. Now go and tell someone else the same.

👥We NEED to talk.

This is a weekly safe space at Intentional Activities to have the necessary, sometimes UNcomfortable, conversations.

Most of the issues we have are rooted in our inability and unwillingness to have the necessary dialogue needed to tear down walls and build bridges. It's an important exchange that no course, lecture, workshop, or book club can do for our relationships.

⇢ Tuesday group: Black people who want a safe space to navigate the stressors that we experience daily, and tools to deal with them [7:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. EST]

⇢ Wednesday group: White people, committed to engaging in anti-racist work, who could benefit from community with others doing the same [7:30 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. EST]

⇢ Thursday group:All people, interested in a bridge-building experience, to inform our collective action toward a common goal [7:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. EST]

We meet via Zoom for 90 minutes

10 person max for each group.

Participation fee is $45.

Connect, collaborate, and commit to change beyond the conversation. It's intentional.

📲 DM with any questions you may have. Click the ‘Book Now’ button in bio to join this week’s groups now!

🖤Whether you’re celebrating Black Love, Galentine’s, or Valentine’s this weekend...my hope for each and every one of us [in this often hate-filled world] is more love.

✊🏾This week taught me:

1. “It is not your responsibility to babysit people’s insecurities. You are not obligated to slow down your bloom so they can meet you at a level they are comfortable with. Your growth is too important to dim the light within you for someone still trying to find their own.”

2. “Nothing feels better to a coward than to watch a brave guy fall.” Dave Chapelle

3. The ‘wanna go back to normal’ people are still running from themselves.

4. Some humans have a ‘covenant with controversy’ []. But when we respond in loving truth, they realize they have to take that chaotic energy elsewhere.

5. ws matters a little bit more than bl*e lives.

6. As we build our anti-racism toolkits, very important to remember is ‘which’ tools to bring to each situation.

7. Many who complain about therapy not being affordable haven’t done the research to find out what free and reduced services are available in their localities. Healthcare [all] is in need of repair, and mental health professionals should be respected as other medical professionals are.

8. Whiteness is the benefit of the doubt,” [David Leonard] afforded to Brady, that Kaepernick will never be privileged to have.

9. Innovation isn’t always liked.

10. ”Our power lies in each other.” Dave Chapelle

What are your life lessons from this week?

🖤Black people: Have you ever been in a relationship with someone and accused them of not meeting your needs, but realized they didn't know what you needed until you told them? It's often that way in relationship with our allies/accomplices/co-conspirators, etc. On a macro level, we all know that structures need to change. But on a micro/interpersonal level, we have to let them know what actions they can take to benefit to our communities in meaningful ways. This involves dialogue beyond, "Pay me…and Google it!" People don't know what they don't know, until they know.

POC: By now, we know that everyone’s level of acculturation is different, and no group is a monolith. This week brought the conversation about solidarity and anti-racism for all groups affected by ws, to the forefront. I'm sure we can all recount pleasant and unpleasant experiences between and among our groups. What kind of conversations are happening in your homes/communities? What is it that you need us to hear/know?

white people: It's imperative that you keep sharing, amplifying, and letting people in your circle know ‘how’ you're standing for what's right. It is also normal for you to be concerned with 'getting it wrong', not wanting to 'center' yourselves/cause harm, and mourn the loss/strain of close relationships…as you knew them. Find spaces where you can talk with other people who are navigating this work just like you, and process your feelings. You'll see that you're not alone, start to feel more comfortable with your activism, and have more energy to keep fighting the good fight. Because, racism isn't going anywhere anytime soon.