Selection from "Who Taught You to Hate Yourself?"

Photo by Ryoji Iwata on Unsplash

By Mayowa Sanusi

We live in a world in which mainstream values, devoid of a love ethic,

have led us down a spiraling staircase to our own destruction.

For proof, one needs to look no further than the headlines of the past year,

2021—Black death every time you turn on the news,

a mishandled global pandemic, wars across the globe,

and daily attacks on information, people, and cultures via social media.

Along the descent down the staircase, you will find over time a creation of societies,

systems, and power structures that seek to dominate, not liberate, oppress, and not free.

These manifest into the things we now call racism, sexism, homophobia, classism, and

so many more drivers of despair in our world.

My wish is that at some point for the descent to end, and for the climb to not only

begin, but sustain.

I hope that up the staircase we find love, healing, and peace,

but it seems like every time we start to climb, we fall again.

Two steps forward one step back as they say.

Mayowa Sanusi currently resides in the DMV (DC/Maryland/Virginia) area and has a passion for social justice and addressing health inequities in communities of color. Mayowa's writing focuses on love, healing, and justice.

You can find more from him through Social Media: Black_izz_gold (Twitter and Instagram)