By Jocelyn Jackson Williams | OBSERVER Columnist
Are we still doing New Year’s Resolutions? The biggest trend seems to be establishing a word that describes your focus for the year. Other people set intentions for the year. These options replace the conventional “lose 20 pounds” and the myriad of other resolutions that are broken before MLK Day. Creating words and intentions may seem more effective than the resolutions of old, but in the end are they any different?
The missing element in all of these new ways to start the year lies in a definition of “resolution” that I found: the action of solving a problem.
I wonder how many people create an action plan to support their goals. A resolution without a plan is daydreaming. I don’t tend to get that specific in my personal resolutions which likely explains why I stopped making them. But this year, I feel some kind of way about it. With the concerted anti-Black efforts that persist, I feel the need to make resolutions that serve the culture that I would liken to a Black Year’s Resolution.
How to make a Black Year’s Resolution:
1) State the need
2) Say specifically what you’re going to do
3) Commit to a date you will do it by
Here are my 2024 Black Year’s Resolutions:
Fight for Our History
High school was the first direct experience I had with systemic racism. In the 11th grade, we studied the Civil War without one mention of slavery. This took place in Berkeley, CA, arguably one of the most liberal cities in the world. Florida presently aims to depict slavery as a thing that happened where the slaves were taught useful skills. Last year, Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye was the second most banned book in the country (reference: https://pen.org/banned-book-list-2023/). The efforts remain consistent to deny our experience and existence.
Although I live in a state that has prohibited the banning of books, there are 33 states with a book-banning, revisionist history problem. I resolve to:
1) Support the advocacy group Pen America
2) by promoting their work socially and supporting them financially
3) during Black History Month.
Invest in The Black Family
Every election season, the reparations conversation makes its rounds. The failure of this country to honor its word would leave me in a state of fury and dismay if I did not focus on what is in my power to do. When I think of the greatest need for reparations, my thoughts lead me to the emotional and spiritual health of the Black family. I pray for the health of people’s marriages. I pray for single people to grow in their emotional and spiritual maturity and discern that of their potential partner.
I have some friends who participated in a group called the Marriage Gang that served as a support system for married couples to encourage and challenge one another for the sake of strengthening their families and deepening their love for one another. Angelo (my husband) and I have been talking about creating our own group for quite some time. So I/we resolve to:
1) Start a group
2) with the purpose of supporting and strengthening marriages
3) by Juneteenth.
Treat Joy As If It’s My Birthright
To share a bit more of his infamous quote, James Baldwin once said in an interview, “To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a state of rage almost, almost all of the time — and in one’s work. And part of the rage is this: It isn’t only what is happening to you. But it’s what’s happening all around you and all of the time in the face of the most extraordinary and criminal indifference.”
Living with pain can create an all or nothing belief system. There is no room for happiness amid misery. My work in grief recovery has taught me differently. Because of its prevalence, grievers believe their pain is their identity. Once it becomes your identity, there is no room for other inhabitants. But the nature of being Black in America is such that our sense of joy, peace, and safety have to come from a source other than our circumstances. For me, that source is my faith. And my faith tells me that joy is a fruit of the Spirit. I wish to explore that further for myself and others, so I resolve to:
1) Finish my curriculum
2) that helps African-Americans develop a deep sense of joy
3) by the first day of Spring.
So, what do you say? How about for 2024, we come up with our own Black Year’s Resolutions. If you’re down, I would love to hear yours. Share them on yours and my socials. Happy Black New Year!