JOY & Social, Personal, Planetary, Healing Change & Empowerment!

It’s been difficult to know what to write the past few months; first so much was being offered online from incredible hearts and minds about the worldwide pandemic we face, and I wondered what could I possibly add of value; then in the past few weeks the upwelling of learning how to face intrinsic racism has been inundating media, my mailbox and social media feed with resources, ideas, things I need to learn, to do…

In light of this, what can I add? Where is my place as a non-black woman, and as a person who is learning as much currently about a plague-filled world (in more ways than one) as any of us?

But, when I saw this article about the Compton Cowboys, I lost it. In the very best way. I couldn’t not comment on this, share this, shout this out. The black horseback brigade in the Compton march against police brutality “brought particular joy to the demonstration” in South Los Angeles, as quoted by an organizer.

This ties right into my belief that change can sometimes best come from invoking joy, humor–anger and passion too, as appropriate — this story knocked my socks off!

Their motto is, “Streets raised us, horses saved us,” which I love. Riding, they say, provides salvation and healing from some of the anxiety, depression, trauma and other effects from violence some have experienced.

Their visibility in the march brought them to my attention—but then I found out so much more! The Cowboys often speak about what it means to be a black cowboy in in Compton, one of the most stigmatized, ghettoized, and high-crime areas in the country. Besides the healing mentioned, riding actually creates safety from police and gang violence, as they are respected rather than feared when going about on the horses.

Gang violence and drugs are not an uncommon route for youth to find themselves in. The Cowboys have a passion and purpose that has a positive effect on them and others in the community.

And their empowerment comes from an unusual alignment with disempowerment:

A typical horse can cost $10,000 to $50,000, but they  have had to rely on auctioned horses that cost approximately $200, and were victims of abuse, malnourishment and other forms of trauma.

“The throwaway horses that we were given ended up being the best horses for us because they had a feisty spirit and a chip on their shoulder just like we did,” a member said. “They were the underdogs just like we were.”

The horses live on a farm, where educational programs in horse and other farm care are held for black youth. The Cowboys evolved from a woman who developed a Junior Posse for her son and his friends in 1988. Members take care of the horses, sometimes with many hard hours of work daily in addition to their jobs, and they learn other skills that connect them with strength, potential, the natural world, and their history (one out of every four cowboys during the 19th century was of African-American descent!).

Many of the black men and women who have appeared in the recent marches are the descendants of black people who fled the Jim Crow South after the Civil War as the urban areas in the East gave few opportunities. These women and men became known for their daring and fearless riding styles as they found work on cattle drives, farms, and ranches in the West.

“The Compton Cowboys are a multigenerational story of black people’s ability to survive and create alternate worlds in the face of neglect,” said Thabisile Griffin, a doctoral candidate in history at the University of California, Los Angeles. “Folks were frustrated, but subcultures of resistance persevered.”

And, apparently black cowboys and cowgirls exist in other major cities across the country. There are several documentaries about a group in Philadelphia –the Fletcher Street Urban Riding Club—that is a century old. Atlanta,  Oakland, Houston, and Baltimore also have black riding clubs—in some cities they are a core part of the history and identity of the area.

I love the resilience, power, creative resistance culture, life-giving connection with the animals, and passion evidenced in forging a new unusual way to cope and even thrive. I hope that you found this subculture as exciting and uplifting as I did. It’s a bit of a departure from the usual– although, truly, I don’t have a usual—my readers know my bent for believing community and culture can be as much a part of the personal growth and healing (or stand in the way of it) as the deep inner and psychic work that I do and like you to explore.

Now that I shared, I’d like to know what YOU have found, learned, or tried that has rocked your world in a good way of late and created personal growth for you; around social change, personal change, or community change through the pandemic and the recent worldwide demonstrations to end police brutality. Please comment below!