Pen to Paper

Hello Friends

I hope you had an awesome weekend and managed to get in the water even just for a little!! I wanted to put pen to paper on some thoughts I’ve had through the past few weeks where it has felt like the world has been on fire.

I’m so thankful for the awakening that has been happening in the world, a conscious and intentional space where people are realizing how unjust the system is for black and brown people and actively choosing to be allies and working to see how they can confront their own actions that perpetuate this system, but also, reaching out in black and brown spaces to support, this has been incredibly refreshing.

Speaking to Rhonda the past week in the Instagram Live was powerful on so many levels, but perhaps the most profound was, the deep hurt she has endured, yet stands tall, with the biggest smile and a heart so full of fire it could power a station! I’m in awe of her and am so encouraged because it gets exhausting… constantly explaining yourself - why you're here, why you don’t speak a particular language, why you can’t disassociate with black pain, why you need the brands you support to outright condemn racism, or just stand behind injustices, why you’re acting ‘black’ when you don’t assimilate… it gets exhausting.

Perhaps the many why’s can also go back to Rhonda’s story, where she came back to her gorgeous new car written ‘go home N’, on a warm sunny day, as the paint melted and the letters took on new manifestations of trauma, was her trauma. Standing there and in her own words ‘so embarrassed, humiliated’, yet she had done nothing wrong.

I’ve thought a lot about this story and how maybe people don’t say ‘go home N’ anymore, but I place this as a page holder, the possibility that the requirement for black people to constantly explain themselves may well be this.

I encourage us to think about ways in which we make space smaller for others by imposing our ignorance and prejudice without a moment to consider the human that stands before us.

As black and brown women and men in the ocean spaces, yes, there’s the standing normative of ‘but black people don’t swim/surf/dive’, I hold my views on the why this is, but at any moment that you’re sharing space, lets always seek to be as inclusive as we can be, this is how we build bridges not walls.

Thanks for popping in and I hope you have a stunner week ahead!

Also, if you haven’t gotten a chance to listen to the IGTV’s, here’s a link of the most recent ones!

Marsha Ahmed

Marsha is a Scuba Diving Instructor based in the Maldives, she shares about being a Scuba Diving Instructor for a living, the requirements and the hardship faced at times from being on elf the few female instructors and how we can get more women into Scuba Instructing! Click here to watch,

Nasreen Peer

Naszoea as she is fondly called in a Marine Biologist, lecturer, researcher and cofounder of Argonaut Science where they are proponents for exploration being for everyone and encouraging community based conservation efforts, we talk about all of this and social reform. Click here to watch,

Rhonda Harper

Rhonda is the founder of Black Girls Surf where she is also the surfing coach. her mission is to get more black girls surfing, the passion that gas driven her to keep doing the work, this in turn, diversifying the sport. We talk surfing, racism, and the important nuggets of longevity in this arena. Click here to watch,

Have a super week!

Xx