I AM SOMEBODY ~ JESSIE JACKSON
Essence is celebrating 30 years because they love us, and I’m celebrating 30 years of writing because I love us too, and I’ve loved myself with the written word!
I started writing because I wanted to survive in a world that felt harsher than I’d imagined as a child, that wasn’t a storybook of fairy tales. And when Los Angeles went up in smoke after the Rodney King trials, words started rumbling in me, and when I sat down at a computer, chapters flowed out of my heart. All I needed to do was sit still and they would come out.
And celebrating 30 years of letting them come out – as essays, blog posts, plays, and now films --- I realize that if I still sit down, there is more to come and this is where I’m supposed to be at this very moment: Tapping my fingers on a computer keyboard.
And that has always been 80% of the journey, finding where exactly I’m supposed to be, rooms that will accept me and are warm and comfortable. In the 70s, I found them at UCLA. Except for my grades at the end of each quarter, LOL, there was nothing that I wasn’t supposed to be there!
I found a room at Second Baptist Church, one of the oldest Black churches in Los Angeles, with grandmother and her clan, introduced to me by friend Monique, who I’d like to end the journey with and I’m going to find.
When you walk into a room where you’re supposed to be, the walls glimmer, the curtains sway, the lights blink off and on, and birds sing.
I love walking into rooms where I’m supposed to be, which starts with a smile from me. I must smile at everyone I see which used to be easier before everyone became somebody. When we were just people in the struggle, making it just another day, it was easier to smile. I fault Jessie Jackson for pumping us up too much with that dang poem.
“I AM Somebody.”
As a little girl, I rode on a bus from Ann Arbor, Michigan to Chicago’s Push; it was in the 60s (don’t do the math), and that poem was recited the entire damn way and I knew we were in trouble.
I am…Somebody —
Jesse Jackson, Chicago, Illinois USA
I am Somebody!
I am Somebody!
I may be poor,
But I am Somebody.
I may be young,
But I am Somebody.
I may be on welfare,
But I am Somebody.
I may be small,
But I am Somebody.
I may have made mistakes,
But I am Somebody.
My clothes are different,
My face is different,
My hair is different,
But I am Somebody.
I am black,
Brown,or white.
I speak a different language
But I must be respected,
Protected,
Never rejected.
I am God’s child!
Thank you Jessie for starting us on our way. But he forgot a few things.
We shouldn’t become what is not just, fair, and loving
We shouldn’t become what our ancestors despised!
We shouldn’t be more concerned with images on Instagram than being real with ourselves and others.
And oh boy here we are!
Thanks, Jessie. I pray he’s doing well.