You are who you are!

Here at the Movement we talk a lot about who we are, our experiences and struggles.

But on a more general platform you are who you are!

Whether that is Black, White, Asian, Gay, Straight whatever you are who you are and no one can change that. People judge and fear what they don't understand. And that breeds ignorance, hatred and violence.

I know it is very hard to go aganist the grain and say screw it! Who cares what people think about you, we are going to live our lifes the way we want and who cares. That is easier said then done when as humans we are herd animals and want to be liked and accepted by our kind.

But there comes a time in all our lifes that we must realize it is just that... OUR LIFES! And no one else can control it but us, unless WE grant someone that power.

Do you!!!!! Do what makes you happy and brings you joy. In the end when we are alone with our thoughts we have to live with the actions, decisions and choices we have created and no one else!

So in regards to race, ethnicity, sex, gender, religion, do what you feel comfortable with. Learn to embrace who and what you are and dont let insignificant people matter!

Immigration

As I stood on the platform waiting for my train I watched the two little girls as they played.

Oblivious to anything going on around them they simply enjoyed each other and being with their mother. The innocence of children will never cease to amaze me. The humid NYC subway platform was no place to be happy about being, especially for a child. As their mother, clearly of South American descent, was at work, her job as a vendor in the subway station didn't seem to bother the little ones neither did it phase her. As they continued to play I couldn't help but watch in wonderment. The laughs and smiles the exchanged were amazing.

Another thing that made me think was how hard the mother was working.

And then what came to mind is how others want to control who is allowed to come into this country. A country that is no more belongs to me or anyone else. Who are you to judge and create these laws that ban people from their God given right.

Thinking about the happiness that filled their innocent hearts, who's to say that would not have been taken from them had their mother not been given the opportunity that God gave the rest of us.

BE WHO YOU ARE!

So in NYC recent President Obama was on the day talk show The View and it was a huge deal for us. During his interview they asked him about being bi-racial and why it seems he is closer to being a Black man as oppose to being a White one when his mother is clearly a White woman.

His response was like many bi-racial people.

I have heard, Halle Berry, Alicia Keys and even Mariah Carey say the same thing that most of the time people will judge you for how you look and your skin color so if you look Black they will think you are Black and a lot of the time the other race in which you are, kind of either falls to the wayside or you have to struggle and fight for acceptance.

Being a Black Latino is exactly the same.

And on both sides there tends to be a separation if you look Black by skin color but are in fact Latino many have experience being pushes away from Latinos for looking too Black and Blacks for being too Latino.

One thing they all said and I truely believe is you are who you are and as long as you learn to be comfortable within your own skin nothing and no one can take that from you.

A Separate Race

So I went to brunch with a fellow actress/girlfriend of mine for business and pleasure and my favorite topic came up.... Black Latinos.

She is an African American woman and is pro the advancement of our people and very active in our communities. Oddly enough though she did not know Latino/Hispanic was not a race. So we had the whole Black/White race and difference with that and Nationality/Ethnicity discussion. And funny enough she feels Latinos/Hispanic should be its own race. That there is so many of us and we deserve our own category.

I didn't and still don't know how to feel about that idea.

I mean we do tend to separate ourselves but this doesnt only come from us this is very much so society that does this as well. On many applications and most of the time when you hear politicians and others speak they will not just say Blacks they will say Blacks and Latinos. 

But in the idea of Latinos/Hispanics being our own race never really occurred to me til this day and I wonder: Should we be our own separate race?