When my 9-year-old daughter, who is currently completing 5th Grade, decided to read “Watch Us Rise” by Renee Watson and Ellen Hagan for a school project, I was thrilled to see her gravitating toward a book that dealt with important real-world issues. At the same time, I was a little apprehensive because this was the first time that my “baby girl” would be reading about or even contemplating some of those issues. I had intentionally kept her in a child-like bubble, hoping to shield her from some of the harshness of our society. But I now had to face the harsh truth that my “baby girl” was growing up, and I could no longer maintain the “child-like” bubble I had placed around her. So, I suggested that we read the book together, knowing that reading it together would lead to some difficult but necessary conversations that were long overdue.
The Exhausted Activist
organizing spaces don’t stay and rarely contribute to the programming of them. I get it…it is exhausting to be patient enough to politically educate…