There Is Nothing

 I am listening to Cicely Tyson's book, Just As I Am, and in chapter 10 she recounts a conversation she had with Ruby Dee about acting and not knowing how to act. Cicely quotes Ruby as saying, "If you are Black and living in this world there is nothing you can't do."

I had to pause the recording. That sentence had me thinking for the next 20 or so minutes about the ways in which I have said "I can't!" and meant it. That sentence reminded me of all the ways Black people have moved beyond "can't do," smashing records and breaking down doors. That sentence blasted my brain with images of the ways in which Black people have changed our way of life with inventions and breakthroughs.

There is nothing a Black person can't do. We are people to be reckoned with.