I am no one’s martyr.

I was recently asked if I joined the protests that have recently occurred.

My response was simple:

I am no one’s martyr.

History repeats itself: when the cause is theirs, they beckon us with cries of “unity." But when we grieve, scream, and demand, they are silent.

They want our bodies in the struggle but not our stories in the center.

My protest does not require the streets.

My resistance is rooted in the sacred act of healing my community.

In teaching my Black and Brown sisters how to carry the weight of a world built to break them and still rise.

My protest is rest. It is the radical refusal to burn out for a system that feeds on our exhaustion.

It is laughter in the sun.

It is the resilience I pass on to my children.

It is truth telling, breath work, and the reclamation of our time.

You may not see me marching, but you will see me building.

You will see me thriving.

You will see me unapologetically Black, woman, and whole.

That is my protest.

And it is enough.

Dr. Janelle Posey-Green, LCSW