Happy Black Girl Day

A blogger who's stature and cachet I have only begun to aspire towards started something she terms, "Happy Black Girl day". Here at OneChange of Heart we definitely like to support, and permeate that which is socially remedial and/or positive. Here is a quote I pulled from last month:

"Happy Black Girl Day: National is not big enough. International is for chumps. We are interplanetary, baby. If Pluto was still a planet, they would be in on it too. The original intent was to celebrate Happy Black Girl Day on the 7^th of every month. But the 7^th fell on a Sunday for the past two months, which reminded me why celebrating holidays on number days doesn’t always work. We don’t even celebrate Dr. King’s birthday on the real date, so who is HBGD to ask for special treatment? ...Every second Wednesday of the month will be Happy Black Girl Day."

I definitely want to support a fellow blogger with positive intentions and I surely need the exposure to new topics, so joining the movement for me was a no brainer. This month I'd like to take a look at a hero of mine who just so happens to be married to a HBG of his own. I'm not yet ready to start making any deep and insightful remarks on the state of Black women, or ANY women for that matter so for starters we are going to give a shout out to my man Roger Ebert and hopefully I can learn something about what it takes to be as successful in all phases of life as he has been.

Roger Ebert is more than just a writer or a film critic to me. He's been successful as a professional and still today even at his age has a sharp mind. I don't think anyone born before 1950 has a better handle on twitter than he does. That alone is homage enough to the great mind he has but there is something else about him that intrigues me. In a contemporary world that thrives on selling images, no matter how flawed or broken they may be he of all the people is the shining example to me of love at it's truest. His words in response to an Esquire interview about his wife Chaz absolutely astound me. "Chaz is always my protector. She had her doubts. She worries that I'm too impulsive and trusting. She is correct. Left entirely to my own devices, god knows what I might be capable of." I can only hope that one day I'm lucky enough to find a woman who can protect me the way she does him. Thyroid cancer has ruined the body lorded over by his still capable mind but their love for one another remains the same. She was a divorcee and he already exactly one month past his 50th birthday when they wed, so the maturity displayed is no surprise. Yet even still, in the climate we live in now it seems amazing any two people could find such love. While not many kids grow up saying they want to become a Critic, I don't know anyone who wouldn't be proud to raise a strong, free thinker, like Ebert. Another oddity about him is that his love for Chaz has a twist I think more people are focused on. Chaz is black, Ebert of course is white. Unlike the fetishized love of the black woman, or any other ethnicity for that matter, with whatever anatomical specialities they are deemed to have, Ebert's love seems purely about his affinity for her person. They are both intelligent, he the Pulitzer winner, she the Lawyer. I think it's an honest assertion that if a poll were taken of whom society thought a man in his position would have been likely to be romantically involved with; Black woman would finish somewhere commensurate with either Gay man or distant cousin. As a man raised by two black parents, dating black women has never seemed like any sort of great big deal, but I am not so naive as to think what Ebert is doing is something insignificant.

I applaud Mr. Ebert firstly for all his work on the behalf of thinking people in America. I secondly would like to give my well wishes to a man who's voice has been taken, but remains unsilenced. Lastly I would like to simply remark at the great love affair between these two people and ponder for later the implications of what it means for him to share this love.

I of course would like to thank @sistertoldja for allowing me to take part in the movement and I look forward to building on this post and using the space to open a dialogue about the issues facing women as a minority and minority women especially. You can find her at: http://thebeautifulstruggler.com/