Morphological Confetti

Mental health. This has been on my heart for many years concerning Americans in general, but it is especially crucial in the African American community because some of us have accepted the myth that it does not affect us. News flash: IT HAS ALWAYS AFFECTED US! When examining it from a historical perspective, there are countless narratives from the Antebellum era here in America of African Americans exceeding a psychotic threshold of no return. For example, there was the fugitive enslaved woman, Margaret Garner , who when cornered during a siege in 1876, butchered her children to prevent them from returning to slavery. The narrative was so terrifying and compelling that writer, Toni Morrison, based her novel, Beloved on the event. Even though Nat Turner attributed his actions to being under the direction of the Almighty God, what was his mental state? I could go on with countless stories, but the bottom line is that mental health should be taken more seriously, and it shoul...

In five to ten years from now, someone reading this post may meet a little boy named "Django."  Now, please don't assume that this future boy's mother got this name from the current film by Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained .  The choice for this name may be for various other reasons, which has nothing to do with film [Yeah, right]. Side-note : Something inside prevents me from seeing  Django Unchained , but I'll probably end up seeing the film. For example, the name, Django , is a Romany term meaning, I awake . It is best known as the nickname of Belgian jazz guitarist, Jean Baptiste "Django" Reinhardt, whose fame has led to its use throughout music. Django is also the name of a web development framework. So, you see, the mother may be a fan of the famed guitarist, Django Reinhardt [Yeah, right].  Or, maybe she is a fan of Sean Penn, who portrayed a musician that admired Django Reinhardt in the Woody Allen film, Sweet and Lowdown [Yeah, ...