Know Your Truth
As millions of women all over the world watched the Golden Global Awards as Oprah Winfrey, one of the most celebrated women of our times became the first African American to receive the Cecil B. DeMille award for lifetime achievement, it became clear the common thread of our championship is not predicated merely on the color of our skin or the texture of our hair, but the ineffable backdrop in which we live and voice the distinctiveness of our truths out loud!
In the unshakeable quake of so many women in the entertainment industry who have unapologetically catapulted into the spotlight the overtness of sexual harassment in the workplace by powerfully high profile men like Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, Matt Lauer, Tavis Smiley, Ben Affleck, Russell Simmons and many more, I applaud the harmonic infusion which eluded to sexual harassment on any level not just affecting the entertainment industry, "but transcends any culture, geographic, race, religion, politics or workplace."
Like Recy Taylor, the African-American wife and young mother from Abbeville, Alabama who was abducted, gang-raped and left blindfolded on the side of a road by six white armed men in the summer of 1944, who was honored Oprah Winfrey during the Globe's, not only epitomizes the "Me Too" movement but fortifies its presence is very much alive in today's society. If we're brutally honest with ourselves, many of us, our truths have been buried within the crevices of our hearts, pinnacles of a time best unspoken within the family sphere or methodically dismissed from the portals of our minds, in an attempt to normalize the daily dysfunction of our secret! In the now infamous words of Oprah Winfrey, she stated "What I know for sure is that speaking your truth is the most powerful tool we have" - do we not have an obligation to our mothers, sisters, daughters, grand-daughters, nieces and other women of all ethnicities to share the commonality of our truths in defusing the horridness of being violated emotionally, spiritually, mentally and physically to the detriment of a generation screaming to have their unpolished truths validated through love. In Isaiah 61:3 (NLT) which says "To all who mourn in Israel, he will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the Lord has planted for his own glory."
It's an incontrovertible truth that the greatest example of truth is when another's pain is avenged through the power of exposure and made whole by the redeeming blood of Jesus Christ by grace! On December 28, 2017, Recy Taylor died just a few days shy of her 98th birthday leaving a legacy prone to ridicule and disdain, while an empowering point of reference to women from all walks of life; especially in our young girls living in a culture where sex-trafficking is the norm and "NO" is optional.
Might we as women become unapologetically unified in the spirit of oneness, girded with the uniqueness of our truths, whole in our stories without shame or guilt that other women may be propelled towards speaking their truths that not one more woman will have to speak a resounding ME TOO!