Wayward Cousins

I've spent the last 2 1/2 years of my life hustling against the odds. When you're black, no matter how talented or intellectually driven you may be, obtaining greatness is always a hustle.

I've matriculated through academia, missing family outings, burning the mid-night oil as I've tried to turn a dream into reality. As so many black and brown people are, I'm somewhat of a success token for family members who've been taken aback by my so-called genius.

It's all been hard work mixed with much prayer, sweat, pain, frustration and love. I call myself breaking a curse of ignorance. My ancestors couldn't help the fact that they lacked education. But my wayward cousins have consciously engaged in preposterous lifestyles unknown to me and others.

We all have delinquent family members whose actions serendipitously startle us. We ask ourselves, " How did so-and-so end up like that," or "Why does he/she partake in a lifestyle opposite that of their dedicated, hard-working parents?"

I ponder the answers to these questions as I analyze the psychological well-beings of my cousins. I won't mention their names but their stories are familiar: baby-daddy drama, their children are part of the growing statistic - born in a predominately single parent household, and the last characteristic -- "uneducated".

By no means am I saying I'm perfect. Had it not been for my loving relatives, I wouldn't be in my current position. Even the love from my cousins has sustained me during difficult times.

Still their inability to want more, to see beyond their noises, demeans the efforts of so many young, talented black and brown people. I pray that they wake up from their sleep-walking insomnia and as my aunt Charlotte says, "stop taking wooden nickels."

After all, so many have worked relentlessly to undo a curse that goes unrecognized by my wayward cousins.

Salaam.
E. Tanille