Mark your calendars now to celebrate Community Healing Days and Wear Sky Blue, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, October 18, 19, and 20, 2013. THE LIE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES For nearly 400 years, we have been fed toxic lies about our history, worth, and value as people of African ancestry. We have been told lies about our looks, intellect, spirituality, culture, morals, and humanity. These lies are all rooted in one Big Lie: the Lie of Black Inferiority. That lie was created to justify the enslavement, colonization, and subjugation of African people. And it is still very much with us today. The lie contributes to the pain that so many of us feel when we look in the mirror. It contributes to health disparities, to the Black-White academic achievement gap, to the epidemic of violence among our youth, to the mass incarceration of Black people, and many of the other challenges facing us as a community. According to the American Psychiatric Association, “racism and racial discrimination adversely affect mental health by diminishing the victim’s self-image, confidence, and optimal mental functioning.” A study published recently in Psychological Science found that “experiencing discrimination increases risk- taking, anger, and vigilance.” According to the Association of Black Psychologists, centuries of living with the burden of the Lie of Black inferiorityand continuing trauma have left the Black community in emotional distress. We have been burdened by the Lie of Black Inferiority for far too long. It is well past time for us to free ourselves and our children from it. Put “time for healing” on your agenda. Mark your calendars now to celebrate Community Healing Days and Wear Sky Blue, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, October 18, 19, and 20, 2013. Community Healing Days is an annual celebration, on the third weekend of every October, created to encourage Black people to take the time, as Dr. Maya Angelou, Chair of CHN’s Board of Advisors, says, “to heal from the lies that have been told to us and the ones we’ve told ourselves.” 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington September 13, 2010, Dr. Angelou called on people everywhere to join together in a simple, but powerful, act of solidarity during Community Healing Days–to Wear Sky Blue “to show our collective determination to turn the pain of the blues into the sky blue of unlimited possibilities.” THE SOLUTION: A GRASSROOTS MOVEMENT FOR COMMUNITY HEALING To reverse the negative trends in our community, we must fight for our emotional emancipation—freedom from the Lie of Black Inferiority. Community Healing Network is working with the Association of Black Psychologists, and leaders in Tuskegee, Alabama, and New Haven, Connecticut, to build a grassroots network of self-help groups focused on emotional emancipation, healing, wellness, and empowerment for Black people. Tuskegee and New Haven are just the beginning; join us for a worldwide movement! Community Healing Network has put into place key elements to build this movement, including: • the annual celebration of Community Healing Days/Wear Sky Blue Days on the third weekend of every October, to put “time for healing” on the Black community’s agenda, and to show our collective determination to move “beyond the pain of the blues to the sky blue of unlimited possibilities!”; • the Defy the Lie and Embrace the Truth Pledge campaign, to raise awareness of the continuing negative impact of the Lie of Black Inferiority and to encourage Black people to make personal commitments to emotional emancipation, healing, wellness, and empowerment; • the Community Healing Institute, which brings together Black mental health professionals to develop resources and trainings to help local leaders establish and sustain emotional wellness initiatives; and • the development of the concept of Emotional Emancipation (EE) Circles. “We need a mass-based movement for mental health patterned after AA… .” —bell hooks “The Negro will only be free when he reaches down to the inner depths of his own being and signs with the pen and ink of assertive manhood his own emancipation proclamation.” —Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ________________________________________ • Make your commitment to defy the Lie of Black Inferiority and embrace the Truth of Black Humanity by taking the Pledge to Defy the Lie and Embrace the Truth at CommunityHealingNet.org • Mark your calendars now to celebrate Community Healing Days and Wear Sky Blue to take a stand for emotional emancipation, on October 18, 19, and 20, 2013. • Visit CommunityHealingNet.org after August 28, 2013. for resources to help you sponsor a Community Healing Teach-In and establish an Emotional Emancipation Circle in your home, faith community, and/or neighborhood during Community Healing Days 2013. • Help us build the movement. Encourage your family and friends to visit CommunityHealingNet.org and take the Pledge to Defy the Lie and Embrace the Truth.Thank you CommunityHealingNetwork
Posted on: Wed, 25 Sep 2013 14:00:10 +0000
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