2014 was a year that received a rise in corruption from America’s law enforcement, and every citizen was forced to revisit the plague of society that is violence against citizens considered “minorities.” The police encounters that are specific to non-white men, women, and children have not been a surprise to this country for years, but the unapologetic violence continues with a spontaneous nature that has forced this country to respond with the urgency, as if it were surprising and new. Systematic bigotry has never been a current event similar to that of reported political gatherings remaining at the center of this bigotry, but the rate at which institutions scheme our humanity into “isms” has created a current that is unlike the wave we are capable of living. I would be doing myself an injustice if I did not yield to our humane assets to overcome societal ills by writing about the negotiations that we should not only be forced to make, but willing to create.
Creating a website has proven to be a goal-altering experience because of the ever-changing tide in world events, therefore, having less focus to finish goal-setting for the design of pages and decisions in posts. My first post on this website expressed how I desired a public space to explore the depths of humanity and society. The results of anyone who is to deem him or herself a writer is to not only be an engaging observant of society, but an advocate for living as a whole human being in a society that subjects us to categories. ‘No stress’ is all I could ponder in August, between having a job and telling myself not to quit a job in order to achieve work as a writer. Between having a job and telling myself not to quit my job, I found time to listen to myself conclude that writing nor is my website the examination on humanity, but how my life is. I was aware that dedicating time to write would adjust my time on any 9 to 5 clock, but I did not want becoming a writer to be unbecoming of my personhood. Writing can be what one does for a living, but more so an example of what living does to a writer when life is both a cause and effect of his/her work or job.
One of my biggest concerns when I created this website was me being labeled a “blogger.” I not only wanted to assert myself as a ‘serious writer,’ but a writer whose work would be distinguished from the personality behind a ‘personal website.’ Without making the assumption that “bloggers” were not writers, I was convinced that “bloggers” were making the digital world a form of writing, instead of the platform for which one publishes writing, taking away ideal, isolated practices required to become a better writer. I was convinced that “blogging” would place exercising personal ideas above the activity of unifying them in public spaces. The idea of a blog requires an infatuation with relevancy and categorization. I do not have any specific categories for posts or a timeline of posts that resemble events in the chronological order that they happened because writing about every current event of the year was not as important to me as writing about multiple solutions. The idea of having a “personal website” provides the freedom to write how I am feeling at any time of the year about any matter of the world, opposed to an obligation to challenge a specific moment. My writing then, is about our everyday duties to not only overcome those events, but change the circumstances that inspire those events. However, through the influx of current events interrupting our dreamy livelihood, I have learned the courage to continue interrupting the world’s reality with a negotiation of our realities, hopes and dreams.
With that being said, here are a few goals for 2015:
1. Write more about protest movements against police brutality
2. Join and organize marching protests against recent police brutality
3. Equalize the awareness of violence against all minorities ( lives of black women matter )
4. Let go of my website being called a blog ( because the term will add more focus to my site )
Peace.
dialogue 