Skip to main content

The Intersections of Who I Am

I am a human being born and living on the planet earth. That is the most general description of who I am and in this moment it applies to more than six billion others. However, there are so many descriptors, terms and experiences that shape how I perceive the world around me, and how others perceive me. 

My family has lived on land referred to as Turtle Island by the First Nations for 400 years. Where I live was once the land of the Muscogee Creek. My first African ancestors arrived against their will as cargo on what is now known as the United States of America. I am also the descendent of people from the European continent, specifically England and Germany. Because of the sacrifice and struggles of others, I live as a citizen of the United States.

I am the descendent of people primarily from the African continent with no ancestral memory of the tribes or nations. Somehow, they managed to survive the Middle Passage, chattel slavery, and Jim Crow.  My grandparents were Lessie and Quincy, and Flora and Thomas. Each lived their own path that impacts me. 

To whom, where, and when I was born provide a context to my life. In 1958, I was born the daughter of Alma and Thomas with a female body and named Leslye Alise long before knowing that I was heterosexual and cisgendered. My state-sanctioned birth certificate identifies me and each of my parents as "Colored". In time, I was joined by a brother, Thomas, and a sister, Angela Denise.

Born into a Protestant Christian family who converted to Catholicism, I recognize the unspoken privilege of living in a nation where the largest percent of the populace self-identifies as Christian. I also acknowledge the violence throughout history perpetuated by those who share my faith tradition. This violence contradicts the Gospel of Christ that teaches love of God and neighbor.

Exploring each of these threads is the result of a natural curiosity encouraged by my parents. Spending time with questions as they arise leads me to a deeper understanding of myself as a person. Pondering the role of history, family, and faith in my life provides a broader understanding of the context in which my life unfolds. It helps me see what is true and the movement of the Divine across time and space.

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for reading Leslye's Labyrinth. I welcome your comments.

Popular posts from this blog

Moving Beyond Weariness

What is this weariness? It is the weight of 400 years of relentless hope while facing the willful ignorance of those who deny the historic and systemic oppression of so many.   Being available for hard conversations is draining yet worth it when someone begins to understand. On the contrary,  there are always those who know more than God. As for me, I have tasted the freedom that was unjustly denied to my kidnapped and enslaved ancestors. This was not exclusively experienced by my extended family. Unknown numbers of Africans from various tribes were kidnapped, chained, shackled, and transported against their will as cargo to live less than humans in enslavement on this land. What traumas does this experience induce for the human psyche, body, and soul? On what behaviors and practices did they learn to depend for survival? Spend time with those questions. Born in the post-chattel slavery era of the twentieth century, I know Jim Crow and apartheid from my lived experience. Th...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Conviction of Her Spirit

Darnella did not seek this trauma, but like so many of our ancestors  she was thrust into a situation  forever altering her understanding of humanity and man's grave capacity to embrace evil and disregard the dignity of another. That she had the wherewithal to suspend herself in time and place for eight minutes and forty-six seconds  to capture George's final struggle with death by a callous and cold-hearted aphyxiation,  speaks to the conviction of her spirit .  It is through such selfless acts that lived experience cannot be denied and we choose to bend the moral arc of the universe closer towards justice all because of one person's courage in the face of profound injustice.
Post a Comment
Read more

Intention

What fuels the hubris of racism  other than the people's refusal  to confront the intentional history of crafting the white supremacy lie?  The lies of the colonizers became the constructed sins of the nation  as they were crafted with the intention  of being an expanding yoke of injustice.   The yoke's intentional lies produce absurd but commonly accepted untruths  fostering actions, both committed and omitted, of reinforced oppression, privilege, and shame. Instead of aspiring for  justice,  the dominant group ignores calls for resolution and  dismissively bequeaths the unjust yoke to the intentions of tomorrow. The weight of yesteryear's enshrined sin is today's burden of lived experience until you give intention to the heavy lifting required to dismantle  the lies supporting the yoke.
Post a Comment
Read more