![in the land of elsewhere in the land of elsewhere](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f9/c3/8c/f9c38c367affebfcf8864ad0c1370788.jpg)
![in the land of elsewhere in the land of elsewhere](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/39/b2/18/39b2186a4dc62dc556eccad94409a560.jpg)
I watch her blossom and it warms my heart. America had lied to me, and I didn’t want to lie to my daughter about it by singing along with her to some “I know I can be what I wanna be” if I truly didn’t believe it.īringing my four-year-old to Senegal was the best decision I made for us: she is happy, fully bilingual, loves her hair, and has asked about the United States only once in seven months. So yes, it WAS the land of opportunity, the land of the free, the country where you could be whatever you wanted to be… just not for people of color. Through a career in health equity, I quickly uncovered a very different America than the one I grew up thinking I knew: a country with a foundation of white supremacy that never included black and brown people in “We The People”, a system that wasn’t built for non-whites to win. I realized that by moving to the United States, I went from BEING black (something I never had to individually think about daily) to BECOMING black (something I had to be mindful of everyday). But there was a rude awakening to that journey: I discovered black as a race, a challenge, a determinant of life and health, a checkbox on every single form I needed to fill out. In 23 years, I met great people, developed strong friendships, learned an awful lot-especially about Service, challenged myself and my capabilities, and forged my budding character to become the strong adult I am today.
![in the land of elsewhere in the land of elsewhere](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/18/cd/2c/18cd2cd7b33a628ce0c9f5bd2d811309.jpg)
I developed a rebellious, activist spirit very early in life, but when I read that book and layered it with the projection of America to the rest of the world through movies and entertainment, pop culture, their embassies’ work and their then world leadership, I didn’t suspect that what I was reading was still painfully and systemically relevant. I held this view despite the fact that the first book I read in English was the Autobiography of Malcolm X. Like many African immigrants, I moved to the Unites States as a young student, in the late nineties, with dreams of “Land of the Free, Home of the Brave,” the country where I could be whatever I wanted to be, where opportunity abounds and where everyone can make it. It is an excerpt from the farewell letter I sent my colleagues at the Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers’ Racial Equity Working Group when I decided to leave the United States of America and move my family to West Africa. I wrote that message almost a year ago today. I want my child to know and feel that being like her mommy-an unapologetically black, foreign-born US citizen, voluntarily covered (!) Muslim woman-is A-OK! So, I am taking that leap." I want to prepare my child from a place where what I teach her is reinforced by what she sees around her and I want to give her what I was given. I am ensuring that what she gains makes what she might lose worth letting go of. This is not to say she will not face other issues she will, as I did growing up, but in the face of continued social injustice and glaringly overt racial inequity, bigotry and racism, I am choosing those challenges as I move her -us-from America to Senegal, to Africa. "I want her to grow up realizing her power before she, like I did when I moved here, understands the challenge it constitutes in certain environments… I want her owning her inner power, beauty and strength as the foundation upon which to handle these challenges. It will be a daily uphill battle to ensure she un-learns what society tells her and absorbs what I will spend countless hours injecting in her to build her up-something my parents never needed to consciously do because I grew up in a society that naturally made the power of my blackness a standard. I cannot guarantee that this USA will naturally support me as I teach my child the power of her blackness. I cannot say that this is where I want to raise my child. When the parrot drives away the first woman he's met in months, David throws the bird out the window - and follows it out into the world."- of cover Cataloging source DLC 1950- Paul, Jim Dewey number 813/.54 Index no index present LC call number PS3566."I can no longer say that this country, where I have lived longer than anywhere else in my life, where I became a naturalized citizen almost 10 years ago, where I poured sweat and tears as a productive member of society, is the land of freedom and opportunity. Little Wittgenstein has a jungle shriek, fierce eyes, and a beak that wreaks havoc first on David's apartment and then on his life. Language eng Summary "When reclusive San Francisco poet David Huntington receives a wild parrot - an unwanted gift from his father - his carefully sheltered life comes undone. Telegraph Hill (San Francisco, Calif.) - Fiction.Label Elsewhere in the land of parrots Title Elsewhere in the land of parrots Statement of responsibility Jim Paul Creator