“Religion is the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power.” -dictionary.com

I didn’t grow up in a religious household..meaning we didn’t go to church, we rarely celebrated holidays, and honestly I don’t recall us EVER praying together. You see, my parents (my mom especially) were practical. They instilled in us to think for ourselves and to ask questions, this also included religion. When it came to religion they gave us the option to choose. My mother’s exact words were, “Do your own research, visit some churches, and go with whatever fulfills you.” Funny thing about that is I never really found a church or religion that fulfilled me. I’ve found being spiritual and believing in a higher power was enough for me. There was a time when I thought my beliefs somehow made me a bad person, so when the topic of religion came up I’d bottle up my honest opinions and agree with the majority to avoid the side eyes. Ironically, when I started expressing how I TRULY felt the majority agreed.

Why are millennials shying away from religion? According to the Pew Research Center, millennials are the least outwardly religious American generation, and 1 in 4 are unaffiliated with any religion. 2/3 of millennials believe in God or a universal spirit. The question still remains, WHY?

1. Lack of Trust: Millennials have a hard time trusting anything or anyone because we’ve been let down so many times. We’re constantly hearing stories of corruption and greed going on in the church which makes it hard to fully commit to one. About 5 years ago, my mom finally started going to church consistently for about a year but abruptly stopped. She said she felt it was all about money…every 5 minutes the Pastor was asking the congregation to give money for a church that still to this day hasn’t been built.

2. Not Necessary: Back in the day, church goers were always seen as better or above everyone else but we’ve come to realize that’s not exactly true. Today’s millennials believe you don’t necessarily have to be religious or attend church every week to be a moral person with moral values. With or without it, we know right from wrong. Many people don’t feel you necessarily have to go to church to show your love for God, you can simply pray and worship in the comfort of your own home.

3. Too Judgmental: 60% of Americans from the ages of 18 to 29 admit they don’t go to church because they’re constantly being judged. As millennials we are really big on being ourselves and not being placed in a box. If you’re gay, transgender, transracial, a stripper, single mother, whatever the case..JUST BE YOU. Churches, though some are coming around to it, look down upon these kind of people…especially same sex relationships.

4. Confused: As I said before, we were taught to think for ourselves and ask questions if we don’t understand something. Truthfully, a lot of millennials simply don’t understand religion, and when we ask questions to try to understand it…we end up offending everyone. How can we wholeheartedly support something we don’t understand? A lot of us didn’t grow up in a church. I remember going to Catholic School and having to take a Religion class where I’d constantly get in trouble for asking questions, though I truly didn’t understand it.

Please understand this isn’t a religious bashing article. Religion, no religion, black, white, purple, elves…do WHATEVER fulfills you! *mom’s voice*

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While I am happy the students of the Parkland Massacre have been so well received, I must admit I feel cheated.

The many calls to action for gun control and reform by the Black community seemed to fall on deaf ears. We organized, marched in the streets, protested on social media, but support was limited to thoughts and prayers. The ability to donate to Black Lives Matter passively through our Amazon purchases is nice, but nothing compared to the large donations of $500,000 each by Oprah, The Clooneys, and countless others. The outpouring of public support, rallying of officials to openly commit to making changes, and then implementing them is unprecedented. BLM never received more than the utterance of three words during opportune moments in the political spotlight where it would only serve to benefit politicians who paid our community dust. Through all of this, the media continues to paint these young activists as the new bastion of civil rights leaders and that leaves an ugly stain on my heart. I am not angry with their success, just curious — Where was the support for Black Americans struggling to make sense of our nation in the aftermath of countless deaths? 

Black tears that fall in America add color to the pages of our past, present, and future, telling a painful story about the value of African-American lives in this nation. Click To Tweet 

Uphill Battle

In 2013, African-Americans stood by in horror, grief, and rage as George Zimmerman was acquitted of the heinous shooting death of Trayvon Martin. This event prompted the use of #BlackLivesMatter across all social media platforms but the group would not take center stage until the demonstrations surrounding the events of Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson. After countless hashtags to raise awareness about the massacre of unarmed Black citizens that followed, Black Lives Matter has struggled to gain ground in their good fight to unite our community to crush the systems of oppression that guard privileged White Americans. To their detriment and our own, we have been out-organized and the truth of this is laid bare when evaluating the progress high school students with proper support are making. BLM lacks the political representation, wealth, and notable endorsements of other movements which continues to cripple our progress, but there’s room for growth.

This is in no way a means to discredit or detract from past, current, or future actions taken by BLM. This is also not meant to direct any negativity toward the hundreds of students and families affected by the Parkland tragedy. I am simply using them as examples of community efforts seeking change for the sake of comparison. Having visited BLM’s website as recently as Feb. 27^th, 2018, it remains out of date with no posts since January 30^th. Their ‘Channel Black’ programming initiative hasn’t had new content since 2017. Even the official BLM shop has yet to launch. The three queer black women who formed BLM are not enough and should not be expected to be enough to support the weight of an entire revolution. This is where community involvement comes in. This is where local politicians and leaders are expected to stand in the gap as representatives for their respective communities to rally for political change. While this process is arduous, it’s where we lacked the representation. However, the opportunity to break the wheel has come in the form of mid-term elections.

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Time for Change

Politics are an avenue where Black Americans across the country need support. Motivated by the outcome of the 2016 Presidential election, more people of color are running for office in 2018 than in previous years. Although not all represent our values or have our best interests at heart (looking at you Stacey Dash), we owe it to them to do our due diligence and take into consideration that as a culture we are attempting to navigate a system that is not invested in our success. While I anticipate positive results from these mid-term elections, I say this with the utmost affection and respect for my people—We need to do a better job of holding each other accountable. We must be as fervently involved in our communities as our Caucasian counterparts. We have to respect and participate in the political process regardless of whether we believe it is manipulated or that results are pre-determined. 503 Black women are running for federal, state, and local seats in the US government. 285 of them are running in red states. We owe it to ourselves not to fail these or any other person of color candidate that means to truly serve the people.

What do you think we can do as a community to continue marching toward success? Will you be voting this year?

Who’s voting for her?                                        Image Credit: Flickr

Somebody put the flash on her! 45 is really out here empowering everybody unqualified to reach for the sky. Stacey Dash is now “testing the waters” to see if her political career will do what her acting career could not.

A number of people online and off have suggested I run for political office. I wanted to see what my online community thinks of this idea as I mull the possibilities. Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/L71fF0NnXR

— Stacey Dash (@REALStaceyDash) February 9, 2018

In an additional tweet she says, “In response to numerous calls for me to run for office, I am considering a run for Congress. Would love to know what my fans and friends think.” The D2DC Committee graphic doesn’t actually lead to a functioning poll so how Stacey’s “team” is handling the response to her potential campaign is a mystery. Never one to rise above critics, she’s already bumping heads with many in the comments…like RichDollaz.

When you spell "you" correctly you can call me dumb.

— Stacey Dash (@REALStaceyDash) February 10, 2018

RichDollaz has since deleted his tweet. He isn’t the only one in her warpath. Not booked and not busy, Stacey has the time to watch her mentions like a hawk. Sharing old beefs with the likes of Chelsea Handler, who she still resents for calling her a “black white supremacist”, she goes on to say all her skeletons are hanging in the breeze. Unfortunately, many of us will be watching to ensure this doesn’t go far because we don’t need another celebrity politician with no political experience representing any group of Americans. We’ve all asked Stacey to have a seat before, but never in the political office.

I live in the 44th unlike some who don’t live in their districts. Thank you to those who offered their support.

— Stacey Dash (@REALStaceyDash) February 26, 2018