PURPOSE / MISSION

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African Americans' successes were hidden in America's dark history of slavery. The American narrative of slavery is full of lies, guilt and fear. With just a little research, many of the lies around the historical contributions of blacks in this country were intentionally omitted because whites needed to control and maintain their dominance in society. Sadly enough, we have all been guilty of regurgitating and embracing some forms of racist narratives within our communities.  HEAR MY VOICE - Born Black In America mission is to rewrite the naratives that have come to shape American History and its values.

HEAR MY VOICE - Born Black In America seeks to show the correlations between the dilemmas  African Americans face today to the dark history that's rooted in slavery.  For example: We cannot speak about mass incarceration in America's prison system without talking about the 13th Amendment, which keeps slavery legal. In addition, the 13th amendment birthed years of racial profiling through Black Codes and Vagrancy Laws in the confederate states which harassed and arrested freed Blacks. This amendment also propelled mass incarceration: the disproportionate number of African Americans incarcerated in relation to their white counterparts. 

It is also our mission to address the legislation and legislators who support bills that target black and brown Americans. It's impossible to speak to the plight of African Americans without identifying legislation that was written and passed under three modern day presidents: President Richard Nixon - War on Drugs (1971); President Ronald Reagan - Anti-Drug Abuse Act (1986); and President William "Bill" Jefferson Clinton - 1994 Crime Bill. 

Please note that the "1994 Crime Bill" was written by then Senators Joseph "Joe" Biden (DE - D), Charles "Chuck" Schumer (NY - D); and Orin Hatch (Utah - R).  It was through these forms of legislation that opened the doors for privatized prisons to negative influence the way laws for non violent offenses are written. It is through those laws that predominantly black and brown communities are negatively impacted the most.