Black Women: You are the face of the resistance

Dear Black women, Now is the time to embrace your greatness.On Monday morning I went to an MLK Day celebration at the Brooklyn Academy of Music with a friend. When I tell you this ceremony was giving my Black church feels...It started off with the Institutional Radio Choir singing gospel songs and moving like the Holy Spirit was in them. Before I knew it I was in sync soul-clapping until my palms felt raw. From where we were sitting on the 3rd-floor balcony, I could not hear all of the words clearly, but I felt them and sang along to the songs that I knew.A long parade of politicians spoke. As usual, everyone had the same canned exaltation of Dr. King's dream. NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio and his wife Chirlane spoke about the importance of mental health and plugged a new program called NYC Well, which allows New Yorkers to call a 24-hour hotline for mental health assistance. It was encouraging to hear the message of mental health awareness spoken so openly by two popular public figures in front of a predominantly Black audience. I call that stigma busting at its finest!After another gospel performance left the crowd stomping and clapping and made little old ladies dance up and down the aisles, the featured speaker stepped on stage.She was a vision in black. A black blouse, a long black, pleated skirt, and dark brown skin. I wondered whether Opal Tometi, one of the three Black female founders of #Blacklivesmatter, had dressed in somber funeral attire for a reason. These are indeed dark days here in the U.S. She addressed everything from Russian interference in the election to the threat of Muslim registries and the wall that will supposedly be built. She urged the audience to stop waiting to see what Trump will do because he has already made it obvious. Her message was clear and crisp - resist.Not all laws are good and moral. Instead of quoting from the "I have a dream" fraction of Martin Luther King's speech from the March on Washington, she shared this:So, on this historic and horrific inauguration day, remember not to allow any one person or body of government compel you to act against your own good conscious.Seeing Opal Tometi speak gave me chills. Watching this young Black woman give such a powerhouse speech reminded me of that oh-so-sweet feeling of representation. It reminded me once again that Black women are amazing. Black women have always been organizers, hidden behind more "traditional" male leadership. I felt scared for her just the way that I would be scared for my own sister. It was like she hadn't gotten the memo that us Black girls are not supposed to talk so loud or question the status-quo. No one had told her that we were supposed to fold our anger up and let it eat us from the inside out. But it's more likely that she had been given the memo and simply chose to ball it up and throw it in the trash. And with that comforting thought, I was overcome with pride.Looking at her I could see that the face of resistance would be a Black woman's. Someone who looked like me, who had been told that she was not enough, just like me, but had chosen to fight for every single dignity too long overdue.