In the News: Community Grief in Communities of Color

This isn’t a political rant by any means, but I won’t apologize for the collective grief were are feeling in the Black community, the Latinx community, and among families. The thing about grief among communities that are steeped in culture and tradition is that we feel each other's pain. That is not to say others do not, but what we find is that we have to care for those who don’t care for us. We have to grieve, stand up, and fight back because we have been ignored and silenced too much.

Communities of color are tired. 

Let’s be honest sisters, we are exhausted. Emotionally, physically, and mentally. If it is not a life of one of our own being taken, it is the weekly microaggression from our workspace. Or being ignored in higher education, or being underappreciated by people in our life. We are tired. However, as a community, we are not surprised, but we are hurt. What we are collectively grieving right now shouldn’t even an option at this point. How could someone so senselessly take the lives of others. As a community we grieve and we do it fiercely because just as soon as these tragedies make it into the news, they will disappear. The lives of these people will be meaningless until the next big thing distracts the media. We refuse to let our own be forgotten and the families who have lost so much go unsupported. This is just not fair to them.  

Truly, I just want to offer this, grief is not linear. 

We are not just going to go through the five stages of grief that research suggests. Unfortunately, when communities of color grieve, because of the injustices we have been through, this can extend for years, months, decades even. It is not as simple as they are gone. We have the added layer of acknowledging we lost some of our community and it will likely happen again. It is not because of an accident, it is because of a hate crime, our culture, our traditions. It's never just that we lost someone. We have that layer of we lost and they were Black, or Muslim, or in the Latinx community.  

If today is feeling especially heavy, please take time to mourn and heal in a way that honors your needs. Be angry, be sad, be however you need. We are strong as a community, but that doesn’t mean we need to address alone.

For the families and friends who have lost so much over the past few weeks, I stand with you. God Bless!