As an academic, I am constantly traveling to present at conferences, network and create change in communities.
The one question I am always asked is, “Where are you from?” My response is Salt Lake City, Utah. It is my home, and not the answer people expect to hear. I get one of two replies: First, are you Mormon? Second, I didn’t think people of color lived there.
Rap artist, Tupac Shakur, first coined “The Rose that Grew from Concrete.” Shakur states, “Did you hear about the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete? Provin nature’s laws wrong. It learned to walk without having feet. Funny it seems but by keeping its dreams. It learned to breathe FRESH air.”
Roses that grew from concrete is a powerful metaphor to explain the conditions that people of color endure in metropolitan communities where there are high poverty rates, crime, low levels of educational attainment, and overall limited access to resources for basic survival. Despite these conditions, these individuals still grow into roses. What does it mean to grow a rose in white concrete?
I see white concrete as a metaphor for White supremacy which is the core of racism. Concrete is hard to break as is White supremacy. For people of color who are born and/or raised in predominately White states, this is our concrete. More importantly, bell hooks reminds us that it is not White people who are the problem, but rather the system of White supremacy, and calls on White folks to actively disengage from the oppressive system.
I recently went back home to visit and to my surprise came across the cultivation of rosebuds.
Jennifer W. Sanchez, director of NeighborWorks Salt Lake, a nonprofit focused on community revitalization in the city’s historically underserved neighborhoods and the Kappa Delta Chi Sorority, Inc. chapter of Utah organized the first girls of color conference in the state.
