EPIPHANY

How do you express yourself?  When someone is delving too deep into my personal business or in some other way annoying me I might roll my eyes or simply hit them with a “whatever”.  I’ve been known to fold my arms and stare blankly when I really don’t want to be bothered. When the NFL’s at work push my buttons I always fall back on the Corporate Hustle. Your methods may be different than mine but I think we can all agree freedom of expression is vital. But on that same note there is a time and a place for everything. Imagine the horror of everyone around me if I were to stand up and shout “that’s some crap” in the middle of a preacher’s sermon. Time and place for everything, right?

Enter Rene Marie.  For those that don’t know, she was invited to sing The National Anthem at a State of the City Address in Denver.  Instead of The Star Spangled Banner, she took it upon herself to sing Lift Every Voice And Sing. No one knew she was going to do that, so a lot of people were quite confused.  When interviewed after the fact, she admitted only her husband and one friend knew in advance what she had planned and that she wanted to express how she felt about living in the United States as a black woman.  I am all for freedom of expression, and I respect ole girls hustle, but was a political event in Denver really the place to break out the “stoney the road we trod” lyrics?  Needless to say the local media ate this up and actually asked Presidential Candidate Obama to comment on her actions (and it deserves to be mentioned no one asked McCain).

In the spirit of expression I try not to do anything that will reflect poorly on “us”.  I went to a predominantly white college and I know the pressures of having the represent the entire race in Political Science or Sociology class.  Aside from an act of civil disobedience involving a racist campus newspaper, my college “expression” was pretty tame.  Now that I’m all grown up and working in a predominantly white office, I am again tasked with pretty much representing the entire race.  I know my brown face is the only black person a lot of these people will ever come in close contact with, so I avoid the inappropriate office attire and stereotypical neck rolling and slang talking in the break room.  I don’t feel my freedom of expression is stifled……as there is a time and place for everything.

As the Rene Marie drama fades, there will still be a few fanatics out there trying to link this to a matter of race relations and “us” getting too big for our britches now that we have a potential black president (You know how those fanatics can be)!  From here until Election Day, anything we do that seems even remotely too “black” or “unpatriotic” is going to be linked to Obama.  If a black man goes postal…….Obama is going to be asked to comment.  If a black woman curses out the meter maid writing her a ticket….TMZ is going to call it racial.   I know we are all excited at the possibility of a black president, but let’s collectively slow our roll before we blow it.  Let’s save our Denmark Vesey activities until after Election Day J

Seriously, freedom of expression is valuable, and should not be stifled, but do you avoid being too free with your expression in the presence of people that don’t look like you?  This is an Olympic year.  In the summer of 1968, Tommie Smith and John Carlos chose to express themselves by raising their fists.  If the opportunity was presented, how would you fully express yourself?

JerzeeChick