As I write the above poem, I reflect on my time at my first ADTA conference, the words of a Billie Holiday song, Why Not Take All of Me, come to mind. In this song, she speaks very candid about a man taking her heart due to a breakup and decides that it is best to take her life since one has taken the better part of her. For me, in this journey of therapy and Counseling, as an African American, one of my strongest assets is that I am a black man. As it is who I am, providing a very specific lens for which I see the world. Being my unauthentic self, (which has been the more accepted version of myself), has been the aching thorn in my back. Like, Holliday, I often find myself saying the very aforementioned phrase when it seems that many cannot
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I had visions of grand merriment and celebrations a plenty. I was eager to bask in a world where pronouns were a commonplace and diversity was not just an honorable mention in a piece of literature. But instead, I found myself being approached with micro-aggressions where one assumes that because of my skin color, I am limited to the sum and the work of that proverbial race (as predetermined by society). Or watching my Native American colleague is drawn to tears, as one is forced to lead a wrongly titled, self-formulated line or “tribes” as it was emphatically and repeatedly referred to in the departure ceremonies. And too, being taken back by an all-White band clad in Afros, singing an array of songs (originated and popularized by other ethnic artists and cultures) for which they paid homage to as a mention as “the reason we have been in business this long.” Lastly, let one not forget, the other affinity groups and individuals that felt unheard or disregarded, or those that simply felt ignored, for whatever reason. I, did, however, enjoy myself in a workshop by the keynote speaker, where one examined the use of and association of monsters as a means of coping with life. Within the session, the content was vivid, it was fresh, it was well developed and researched and openly inclusive of the varied walks of life for which it could encounter. I didn’t have to search very far to be in a forward-thinking state of mind, nor did I feel the need to seek practical ways and connectivity for cultural appropriateness and inclusion, as the exploration allotted space for said
I had visions of grand merriment and celebrations a plenty. I was eager to bask in a world where pronouns were a commonplace and diversity was not just an honorable mention in a piece of literature. But instead, I found myself being approached with micro-aggressions where one assumes that because of my skin color, I am limited to the sum and the work of that proverbial race (as predetermined by society). Or watching my Native American colleague is drawn to tears, as one is forced to lead a wrongly titled, self-formulated line or “tribes” as it was emphatically and repeatedly referred to in the departure ceremonies. And too, being taken back by an all-White band clad in Afros, singing an array of songs (originated and popularized by other ethnic artists and cultures) for which they paid homage to as a mention as “the reason we have been in business this long.” Lastly, let one not forget, the other affinity groups and individuals that felt unheard or disregarded, or those that simply felt ignored, for whatever reason. I, did, however, enjoy myself in a workshop by the keynote speaker, where one examined the use of and association of monsters as a means of coping with life. Within the session, the content was vivid, it was fresh, it was well developed and researched and openly inclusive of the varied walks of life for which it could encounter. I didn’t have to search very far to be in a forward-thinking state of mind, nor did I feel the need to seek practical ways and connectivity for cultural appropriateness and inclusion, as the exploration allotted space for said