Beautiful people!!! Goooooooooood (insert whatever timeframe you find yourself here)

In my last podcast, I spoke about being the blueprint for your family (listen here).This happens when you are blazing the trail for those behind you. The legacy of your ancestors doesn’t quite look like what you’re doing so…it’s God and you figuring it out. This can cause some anxiety and stress because the pressure to succeed is high. So I’ve been looking at ways to destress.

While on this break from classes and after a particularly brutal semester, I’ve decided to take up reading again. I have so many half devoured books on my bookshelf…yet I always buy more 🤷🏽‍♀️. This month a church member bought me a book from my reading list as a graduation gift. (Thanks Yolanda 😊). The book was the workbook for The body is not an apology. While going through the workbook I realized that I would get the most benefit out of reading the book before or atleast in conjunction with the workbook. Soooo purchased that too and it is amazing!! Sonya Renee Taylor speaks about how we view, judge and create worth based on bodies from an engineered conclumerate machine that essentially smacks us in the face after toddlerhood. In fact, she states this is when we are at our purest forms, babies/toddlers explore their bodies with curiosity and not disgust.

Reading the book opened my eyes to the harmful ways, I’ve viewed, misused and allowed others to misuse this vehicle I experience life through. I’ve done things to this body because I felt sometimes it deserved to be treated this way. I judged it and compared it…only to feel worse afterwards. Not truly understanding the source of my discontentment.

I can’t remember how I was introduced to the Harvard Bias test, but I was fascinated by the results I received. I actually try to take one test every six months or so to see if my results have improved. Even as a double minority….I still have biases. Yes, and ironically even slightly with black people. I’ve written about this previously, that we are all exposed to the same negative narratives about all kinds of people. That exposure causes us to view people based on what we have seen and maybe experienced. This has to be acknowledged, without that we will continue to ignore that their are people in power who base policies, laws and even police certain bodies based on biases. This can have unimaginable consequences.

My husband and I have recently started watching a show called Shrill (which is now in its third season). The show is based on a 30-something, obese Caucasian woman who is trying to navigate her career and dating life. The last episode we watched had Annie confront her boss and his views on obese people. She ends up writing an article entitled Hello, I Am Fat, which garnered great social media support and ire from her boss.

We don’t often get the stories of “others” in mainstream, in most movies the obese girl who is picked on in high school gets a revenge body and makes everyone regret it. We don’t often see stories of obese people living life through each stage. Humanizing their experiences because…they are indeed humans.

I’ve often enjoyed the show Black-ish because they tackle unique storylines that are indeed black. Although the affluence of the family isn’t something I readily relate to, the characters are familiar. I know people in my family that act like a Rainbow or an Andre…I’m curious to see what the reboot of Wonder Years looks like. I’m not sure I like that it is set in the 60s, but I’m hoping it will still be very relevant.

I’d encourage you to look deeply at some of your beliefs. Challenge them and see if you can discover a way to humanize those around.

Let me know if you take the Harvad Bias test and if you’re surprised by the results.