Being a very smart black girl without rich parents in Little Rock, Arkansas lies at the core of everything I’ve had to learn about how to live and thrive in this world.
Persisting and resisting through the inequities within the Little Rock School District and as a resident of Southwest Little Rock taught me:
– How to advocate for myself
– That the answer to the question of “what’s the difference?” is just about always access to capital and/or resources.
– How to seek and secure resources when a powerful person or system tells you there’s nothing for you
– Telling the difference between a person who is there to help and who is there just to say they helped
– Protecting and nurturing your dreams even when they don’t match your reality
– How much teachers LOVE their kids and pour their souls into us in hopes of saving us from the traps of life
– That education is about knowledge but it’s also about transitioning the children of Little Rock into stable and whole adults.
– Systemic consequences actively trap some Black and brown children for the benefit of white children and that these sacrifices are entirely acceptable.
– How much harm people are willing to do to the city as a whole to keep themselves separate from people who look like me or live where I live.
If you’re still reading this, please hear me. When it comes to education, at the end of the day you HAVE to think locally. Even though many kids in Little Rock will leave for out of state universities never to return again, there will ALWAYS be people who stay here and root here and thrive here. The extent to which we educate our local population and prepare ourselves to be empathetic, contributing adults has a direct effect on our community’s stability and quality of life.
At the end of the day, you are a part of a larger community no matter who you are or who you think you are. We are in Little Rock, Arkansas at the end of the of it all y’all. Nobody is checking for us. We HAVE to check on ourselves and take care of our own community.
At the core of our community’s broken soul is the fact that many, many people people simply do not identify as citizens of Little Rock and will only act in the interest of their racial or geographical grouping within the city to the detriment of all others. Part of what has driven me to even create this space is simply to build a sense of community for Little Rock online. We could BE Little Rock.. Not West Little Rock… not East End… not Chenal.. not John Barrow, not Hillcrest… but actually Little Rock.
For the sake of our future, we have to bridge our divides AND put resources into targeted, collective initiatives. We are so broken and the harm is generational. The older I’ve gotten in Little Rock, the more I am able to see the direct effects of past decisions. Divisive seeds that were planted in my childhood are the weeds I now have to clear for my child. Witnessing and being a recipient of the harm of racial and geographical divisions in Little Rock has marked me in ways that I carry into adulthood.
My deepest hope for Little Rock, Arkansas is that as a community we commit to treating the wounds and kissing the scars of generational harm. I hope we can develop a sense of municipal pride and civic responsibility. I want us to strive to be a community where people in Little Rock are nurtured, protected, AND resourced for stability and prosperity. A small town heart with a small city’s budget could be transforming our lives, but it only works if we are truly working together. A sad truth is that for generations, the interests of people seeking intentional segregation/artificial exceptionalism has been winning out over collectively preparing Little Rock’s people for our futures.
Little Rock rang that bell so loudly, the world finally heard it in 1957 and put us in the history books. Everything after has been an echo.
I dare to hope.
