History in the Making
Happy almost spring! This weekend I opened my windows for the first time and ordered plants for my summer garden. I’m READY.
Official spring is just a couple weeks away, and in its honor, I’d like to highlight 3 other events from this past weekend that I’ve been sitting with.
I learned about Claudette Colvin- On March 2, 1955 the 15 year old high school student refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, nine months before Rosa Parks’ historic act of resistance. I’m not exaggerating when I say that Rosa Parks was my childhood idol- in fact she has held true as one of my North Stars throughout my life. But while I wrote book reports and essays about her throughout my k-12 education, it wasn’t until much later that I learned about her deep connection to the Civil Rights Movement, the intentionality behind her famous refusal, and how controversial it really was at the time. I don’t remember learning about Claudette Colvin at all.
We officially passed the 150 day mark of the publicly documented genocide in Gaza- a frustrating, devastating, completely unnecessary, entirely inexcusable milestone that the US has a very high level of responsibility for. Since October 7th, over 30,000 people have been killed, infrastructure destroyed, and land devastated. And, while it’s still a somewhat controversial to use the “g” word, and much of the establishment is hanging on as tight as it can, we’re seeing unprecedented public demonstration.
My business coach, Malla Haridat, held an exclusive mastermind event in NYC where I had the privilege of spending the day with a group of inspiring entrepreneurs, almost entirely women and almost entirely BIPOC, all committed to shifting the narrative of entrepreneurship, wealth, and what we can achieve when we step into our leadership.
A photo of a group of entrepreneurial leaders. A sign behind them reads, "Welcome to the New Majority Institute."
What these three things have in common may not be obvious right away, but the synchronicity to me has been striking:
We won’t get anywhere alone. Whether hailed as a heroine or undisciplined teen, neither Rosa nor Claudette resisted out of random acts of rebellion- as hyper-individualism would have us believe. They were part of a movement, a community, a dream for a different future.
And we won’t get there without taking a risk. Whether it’s breaking a rule or two, having a difficult conversation, or putting yourself (or your business) at risk by taking a bold, controversial stance. Even those we now hail as icons were told their acts of resistance were too bold, too controversial, that they should “work with the system.”
That system was not made for us. We need to create new ways of doing and being. I believe that there are infinite ways to do this, many of which are simultaneously complementary and contradictory, and that it’s up to us to find our own pathways. But one thing is clear. We can’t wait for heroes and we can’t try to hold the world on our own shoulders either. We will do it together or not at all.
Our world is not ok. But we have a choice to not give in, not follow the rules, to do something different. To make the history we want to see. And it will be messy and hard and confusing and rewarding. And somebody will tell us we did it wrong. And someone else will tell us we gave them the courage they needed.
What does this have to do with spring, you ask? Spring is about action, inspiration, growth, a decisive movement forward to the next phase, the palpable experience of cycle, fertility, planting seeds!, seeing the world anew again and again.
So here’s my challenge to you: be bold. But I promise you don’t have to do it alone. There are so many of us behind you.