Jalicia Dunn
Level IIII Donor Coordinator
Georgia Eye Bank
What does Black History Month mean to you?
Ever since I was a child, I have always been saddened but also enthusiastic about Black
History Month. The cold hard truth about Black History Month is that our history has so much darkness and sadness based off what the Black community has endured. Slavery, segregation, and Jim Crow are all things in our history that makes me weep for our ancestors. Even now, we are still challenged with the sad truth of police brutality, racial profiling, and wage gaps. With all the darkness and sad things we can focus on, I choose to focus on Black Excellence – and to me, Black History Month is Black Excellence.
Black Excellence is the empowerment of black people by exemplifying and focusing on the amazing things and people that come from the Black community. I choose to focus on things that we would not have without the brilliance, resilience, and intelligence of the Black community. I choose to take a moment and be grateful for Black innovations like three light traffic signal, home security system, automatic elevator doors, and even the clock.
Black Excellence is President Obama; remembering how it felt to be enrolled at a prominent HBCU (Historically Black College or University) and finding out our country had officially elected a Black man as the 44th President of the United States. Black Excellence is celebrating continued progress when we elected a Black woman as our 49th Vice President, Kamala Harris.
Black History Month is about resilience, persistence, strength, and perseverance. It is about a history of being oppressed, put down, and made to feel less than, and turning it into successes and triumphs! I make sure to carry Black Excellence in my work at Georgia Eye Bank every day. Helping families with their grief and giving the gift of sight requires a level of emotional intelligence and perseverance that I believe comes from the Black Excellence that we celebrate in Black History Month. I strive, every day, to carry it with me and share it with as many people as I can.