It’s a Privilege to Meet You

I have a passion. It rules my thinking almost as fervently as faith rules my spirit. It drives my work as a consultant and editor.

The passion?

To see ‘myself’ in places and spaces where ‘I’ belong.

I’m still young enough to recall the bliss of Saturday afternoons and Sunday evenings when Soul Train and Ed Sullivan brought us some faces to watch on TV. Faces that looked like mine. It was a big deal.

Every black home had at least one copy of Jet or Ebony or Essence displayed either prominently or casually; dog-earred and passed around. In the pages of those magazines were people who looked like me, and they were doing things in science, business and the arts that were inspiring and encouraging. They were hopeful things for little people like me, like Barack Obama too.

Recently, I strolled into the digital and tech space and once again, I saw ‘me.’ I see black people. They are geeky, nerdy, super smart, theorists, tactians, strategists, fun-loving, dull and pretty freakin’ impressive. And the thing I think I love the most as evidenced with BlackWeb20.com is that they aren’t waiting to be invited to the party, they are hosting their own.

I think that’s hot.

Martinique philosopher Franz Fanon said something I can only paraphrase because I’m too darn pooped to look it up. Fanon said, in effect, that we don’t notice the absence of our image until we see that one face, that lone face, and then we want to see more.

I want to see more.

It’s a privilege to be in this space. And it’s a privilege to meet you all.

Thank you, Angela and Markus.