IDENTITY
Birthed in the plains of Tema
In the land of gold and cocoa
Surrounded by love of all proportions
Acquainted with challenges of survival
Seeing the haves and the have-nots
Observing a societal structure of class
Getting lost in narratives of leaders
Leaders who are my treasured ancestors
Leaders in the liberation of Black people
Jubilating in the richness of the Black experience
I thrived in my home
Building dreams I wanted to see
Hearing about other worlds far away
Never understanding how they differed
Differed in experiences lived by others like me
I traveled now to the United States
A curious talkative turned into a quiet soul
Struggling to understand my experiences
With less recognition of my identity
Craving for a sense of belonging called home
The feeling of loss in connections
Tirelessly trying to build new ones
The confusion of the Black experience
Completely different from mine
The trauma of being told by Whiteness
My African identity made me elite
Seeking to bury it all in academics
It became very evident however
Statistics did not account for heritage
When generalizing Blackness as a monolith
Because the racist philosophies
Were deeply rooted in systems
Within the inequities I now navigate
Systems with White supremacy at core
Never a regard for how it tore down
My home through colonialism
Enslaving my brothers and sisters
A Black African in the diaspora
Is by its own accord my identity
One filled with richness and heritage
One filled with culture and beauty
One filled with oneness with others
Stolen from their homes, not by choice
Now together we fight arm in arm
With resiliency we face our trauma
Dismantling the structures that abound
As antiracism warriors
To yield a world of hope we see
For us and generations to come.
By : Sharon Attipoe-Dorcoo (Ph.D)(sharon.dorcoo@tershallc.com) is principal of TERSHA LLC and a senior service fellow at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She is based in Alpharetta, Georgia. The author is grateful for God, her ancestors, family, and friends for always reminding her of her roots and her legacy.
Source: https://www.healthaffairs.org
