Lioness Healing

I woke up this morning to the news that 1-year-old Kohen Wiley was killed by police.
A fu***ng baby.
A baby who should be here learning new words, making messes, and being held by people who love him. Instead, we are saying his name because police opened fire over allegations involving diapers.
The news hit me like a punch to the chest and instantly took me back to the months my son and I spent organizing weekly sign waves after George Floyd was murdered. I remember him asking me, “Mama, how do I not get killed by the police?” No child should ever have to ask that question.I checked in with him today, and we cried together. Moments like this make me want to hold him forever. We talked about Kohen. We talked about Gaza. We talked about the thousands of babies whose names the world will never know because there are simply too many dead children to keep track of.
And I am fu***ng tired.
I spend my life advocating. Twenty-four hours a day. Three hundred and sixty-five days a year. For people being crushed by systems that were never built for them to survive. I stay informed. I show up. I organize. I educate. I try to carry hope. Today I cried between every massage client. I talked about it with them. I am not masking. I am not pretending. I am not performing wellness today.
I am angry.When does it stop? When do we stop murdering Black babies? When do we stop murdering children? When do we stop treating oppressed people as disposable?My son said to me today, “Mama, go back to the streets and say it out loud. BLACK LIVES MATTER.”
So I will.I’ve had many conversations recently about anti-Pōpolo sentiment here in Hawaiʻi, and I will continue to have those conversations. Because we see this pattern over and over again: oppressed people are taught to fear, hate, and harm other oppressed people. Colonialism teaches us to punch sideways instead of upward. White supremacy depends on it.I am here to disrupt that. I am here to challenge that. CONT IN COMMENTS 👇🏽