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How To Break a Black Man’s Spirit
There are only so many times you can witness a system fail your people before it breaks you.
I remember growing up believing the world had my back. It was filled with endless possibilities and working hard would afford me the same opportunities as everyone else. I believed this up until I was 18 years old. For those first 18 years, I was fed a lie. A falsehood that continued to evolve and morph itself into something that was woefully ignorant of the reality of being Black in America.
The first time I encountered racism was while volunteering in a Pittsburgh hospital in college. I volunteered with elderly patients that had delirium and visited their rooms each day to monitor their progress. On this particular day, I walked into the patient’s room and started by asking my normal set of questions when I was interrupted by the patient asking me to pray with them. I wasn't particularly religious, but it wasn’t a busy day at the hospital so I didn’t mind wasting some time.
The prayer started as usual with her thanking God for another day and slowly but surely became racist. At one point the patient said, “God, thank you for bringing me a good one today. One that isn’t like the rest and isn’t out there making our world more dangerous like the others. Thank you for answering my…
