To be young, gifted and Black

Donny Hathaway took me to church today. This song is eight minutes long, and too short!! I remember being identified as "gifted" before I entered school. I think I was two years old at the time. I had my little toddler physical and they gave me an IQ test.

To be young gifted and Black...oh what a precious gift.

I remember being at the children's clinic and putting together puzzles, matching pictures and drawing. I remember having to hop around, and balance on one leg. Crazy memory right? My mama will tell you that I started memorizing books around that time too. But I promise I was reading!

We must begin to tell our young, 'Did you know that there was a whole world waiting for you...Haven't you heard that the quest was just begun..."

I don't think I was born "gifted". Well I think God does craft you. But being "gifted" means something different. I was gifted with parents who cared about me. I grew up "a poor little girl, with a rich girl's education..." That's what my mama says.

To be young gifted and Black...Open your heart to what I mean.

Parents who cared was...is my gift. Because they cared, everyone I ran into along the way had to stand up and recognize. I could not be ignored in school. Shoot, even when I did things I should not have done growing up, I received the benefit of the doubt. I was labeled. Labeled: GIFTED...and that came with a stamp of approval.

See...being labeled "GIFTED" brought a lot of benefits that being labeled "POOR", "SINGLE PARENT HOME", "LOW INCOME", "TROUBLED", "ECONOMICALLY DISADVANTAGED", ETC. will not give you.

"Gifted" means you CAN DO...whereas the other labels are often used to explain why you are not doing. At different points of my life, I fit all of those labels. But that "gifted" label opened up doors that would have otherwise been locked up like Fort Knox.

Strange, huh? That as early as two years old, my life was being mapped for me. It brings me to this point where I get a little somber. Every statistic I see about Black folks is always negative. So negative. We lead in this disease or that ailment. Our young men are more likely to die from homicide than anything else, we are failing in academia.

You know in this whole wide world. There's a million boys and girls who are young, gifted and Black. That's a fact. Yes it is!


It make me wonder if anyone tells kids who look like me that they are gifted. Do they take IQ tests when they are two years old? Do their mamas and daddies buy them books to read before they are "supposed to know" how to read? Do they receive the benefit of the doubt from society? Do teachers pay attention to them? Have they been labeled? Do those labels benefit them or hold them back?

Anyway...just something that was on my mind...

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