Friday, November 19, 2010

Image Control

I just got through reading Dick Gregory’s speech at St. John’ Baptist Church in 1963, the first couple of paragraphs were so funny, it was hard to control. However a few lines later, this particular line caught my attention “One of greatest problem the Negro has in America today is that we have never been able to control our image.”

Forty seven years later, I would like to borrow this statement from Dick Gregory’s speech and improvise a little by saying it this way, “One of the greatest problems the Garínagu have in America today is that we have never been able to control our ‘Image’”.

Today is November 19, 2010. The Southern region of Belize, mainly Punta Gorda and Dangriga, are celebrating National Garifuna Day; it is a national holiday in Belize in honor of the Garínagu. Garínagu in large cities like New York, California and Chicago will be going back and forth to Belize, and those who cannot travel will join the celebration by having different activities throughout out the United States.

A week from today, the Garínagu in Guatemala will celebrate over two hundred years of struggle in a country that still doesn’t accept us as equals. Be that as it may, I have said this in so many words, today many of us are trying to make things better and don’t even realize that all we have is now.

Now that we are here, it is vital for us to take control of our image. The obvious question is ‘What Image’? The obvious answer will be, “it depends on the image we will feed!!” Self image is fundamental for this process. I have been volunteering in my community for the past eight years and for the past couple of years we have been working with the children in the community about the concept of “Identity”.

Identity and self image are vital to our human development, we can make a big difference if we can feed the “right image”.

To be continued…
Au le
Lubara Huya.

2 comments:

Dr. Michelle Forbes said...

This is a wonderful blog post. It reminds me of a story I heard through Joel Osteen, a popular motivation speaker here in the US:

"An old Cherokee said to his grandson, 'Son, on the inside of every person a battle is raging between two wolves. One wolf is evil. It's angry, jealous, unforgiving, proud, and lazy. The other wolf is good. It's filled with love, kindness, humility, and self-control. These wolves are constantly fighting.' The little boy thought about it, and said, 'Grandfather, which wolf is going to win?' The grandfather smiled and said, 'Whichever one you feed.'"

Joel has also said many times, if we don't constantly remind our children who we are -- full of love, promise, ambition, and kindness-- then someone else will tell them for us, and they may be filling our children's minds with self-hate and low self-esteem. I applaud your work with Identity in children and I hope you continue.

tomas sanchez said...

Hi Michelle
You are somespecial!
Itarala.