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An open letter:
I wrote Rally Call in 2018 because I no longer wanted to compartmentalize myself due to the color of my skin. I was done with having to erase myself for someone else’s comfort and I was done with buying into the false belief that I needed to wait for someone else’s permission to live my life. It was a love song to black America- reminding us that believing in a ‘heaven’ when our life is over, while just suffering through this life right now, is not the only option. It’s a song to all of America to teach us that until we are willing to own all the parts of ourselves, our country's entire history, only then will we truly have a chance at being free.
I was coming from a place of honesty, strength and a willingness to challenge the norms that a lot of us have come to accept. I was feeling like it was time to wake up.
And then Ahmaud Arbery was murdered by a citizen because this citizen decided it was their right to shoot him while he jogged. Jogged.
My sister is a runner.
My brother runs.
#joggingwhileblack
And then I learned about Breonna Taylor being murdered by police in her home.
While she slept.
I sleep.
Every. F’ing. Night.
#sleepingwhileblack
And then George Floyd was murdered on camera- in front of many citizens- by a police officer, a person given immense power by society.
Someone who we’ve been taught exists to protect the people.
George Floyd,
like you,
like me,
was ‘the people’.
#breathingwhileblack
I was confronted with the question of ‘what do I do?’
I knew I had to do something.
You see, I have two boys…
How could I not?
As it currently stands, they will grow up in an America that will judge them, and other boys who are black, by vicious, erroneous beliefs of what has been put upon black boys and men.
Parents around the country, up until these moments, had prayed that if they had ‘the talk’ with their black sons, then maybe they might be safe.
I knew this song needed to see the light of day. It could no longer sit on the shelf.
I called a couple of friends and, in the height of the Los Angeles protests, we headed to the Great Wall of Crenshaw which is an incredible mural featuring many prominent African Americans who have helped in the bending the arc of the moral universe towards justice- like Dr. King, Malcolm X, Haile Selassie, leaders of the Black Panthers, Marcus Garvey and Frederick Douglass. We shot this music video in just a few hours
This time is critical for our humanity. With COVID, Mother Nature has basically told us to go sit in our rooms and think about what we’ve been doing to each other and to the planet. In that stillness, we could no longer distract ourselves from what we’ve been running from in our country.
What we do with this moment is critical.
I want Rally Call out in the world to remind us when we get tired or scared, when we risk falling into complacency. When we think we’ve done ‘our part’ and can now rest on our laurels, that we can always do more.
I don’t want us to fall back asleep.
And Rally Call is our wake-up call.
Our voices,
YOUR voice,
has never been more necessary and able to make a change than at this very moment. Your voice can help to save the life of the next black person whose fate could be murder at the hands of an empowered law enforcement
officer or a seventeen year old white kid with a gun.
We need to speak out because we currently live in a society that tells those people in every way, that they have that right. America will quietly turn a blind eye.
Your voice can change our government, our way of being and our beliefs about what is possible.
Our children,
All of our children,
can thrive in a world free of ignorance, discrimination and hate.
I hope you will stand with me and #JoinTheRallyCall.
How can I join the Rally Call?
SHARE the Rally Call music video and use #JoinTheRally Call – I see this song as medicine, plain and simple. The message is the truth, the music makes it palatable. Share this video with the world so that we don’t slip back into complacency. Let this song be the reminder that you need to keep speaking out and standing for what serves us all.
VOTE and make sure your voice is counted in this general election on November 3 – This American experiment of democracy has its faults, but an even greater tragedy is not doing our part to make what works about it, work for our collective good. Vote, tell your grandma, your neighbor, your kid’s teachers, your mail person, your grocery store clerk to vote. In the words of Lin Manuel Miranda- Do not throw away your shot.
EDUCATE yourself and other people around the topics of unconscious bias; false narratives; the whitewashing of history; and the perpetuation of negative and harmful stereotypes. We all have work to do, this is nothing to be ashamed about. We wouldn’t be on the planet if we weren’t here to grow. Sometimes we choose not to grow, not because we don’t want to, but because we’re afraid of change, we’re scared of what it means about us, or, we simply don’t know how to. I will be sharing information, tools and inspiration on my social media and in my newsletter in service to us all living a better life and leaving a more loving legacy. I have faith that a lot of this information will come from you and others who are willing to stand with me and #JoinTheRallyCall. We cannot do this alone, We can only do this together.
With love from,
Monique x
P.S. I am donating a portion of the proceeds from Rally Call to Color of Change, the nation’s largest online racial justice organization, who are celebrating their 15th Anniversary this year. With over 1.7 million members, Color of Change works to move decision-makers in corporations and government to create a more human and less hostile world for Black people in America. You can make your own donation here. Thank you.