by Stephanie Flores

Created on: March 16, 2009   Last Updated: April 06, 2009

Illusionary images of black women have long been skewed. We witness this on television, read about it in gossip magazines and sadly buy into it from the News we see on our local channels. Not to mention the Morning talk shows perpetrating black women as the, "Baby Mama Drama Queens." How often do we actually look at ourselves, our mothers and our grandmothers and see the truth of who we are? Not just the surface of which we are, but the essence of our being? I challenge each of us to take a long intended look or accounting of ourselves (not "at" our selves...anyone can look "at" someone and superficially see), and answer for ourselves as well as to ourselves, who we "Be". The state of being is powerful. Upon understanding and accepting who we "be", we begin the process of self realization. To realize our state of being in truth moves us to conscious self actualization. Illusionary images begin to fall and make way for true illustrations of black women. Our truth is then witnessed in how we treat ourselves (and potentially how we are treated). In this, we choose healthy living. We choose healthy relationships. We choose joy over sadness. And ultimately we choose love, love of ourselves and love of humanity. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /

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Black women have the power to change a nation. The power to bring life into the world and "knowing" we have such power, calls to us (I would hope), a grand sense of responsibility. If we continue to allow the media to type-cast us as whores, drug addicts, uneducated or under educated beings, what does that say for the future of humankind? I am hopeful black women will do as we have always done. Taken the responsibility of being good women, good daughters, good mothers and yes, good wives (keeping in mind we choose good husbands), to change the world. As such, let's not accept the media's illusionary images of black women. It is therefore essential; we nurture our truth by our deeds. We must stay in school. We must speak words out of love and not from fear. Words spoken from love are inviting, encouraging and supportive. Words spoken from fear tear at us at levels we feel hurt and devalued. As such, illusionary images of black women are created and tolerated. When we see ourselves or our sisters being portrayed falsely, we must challenge this pathology by how we choose to patronage. Understanding and acting (not reacting), but rather moving in action by how we spend our dollars,

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