This is TQ from Say It Well Apparel. Allow me to introduce myself and Say It well Apparel to you. Let me start by sharing a little bit about myself. I was a pretty good kid. I did okay in school, though teachers said I talked too much. I was a decent athlete. I started out trying to play Pee Wee Football, but I was over the weight limit for my age group. I wasn't overweight - just kind of tall and on the upper edge weight in my age bracket - and that was heartbreaking. I shed big tears.
After recovering from my gridiron heartbreak, I pursued other things such as basketball and track. I have always been driven so I did well in high school and college athletics.
This drive was what helped me to become an All-American in track and field while attending Harding University. And I believe that this drive is also the seed that has grown my desire to make a difference on this planet.
I grew up in a few different places in the US because my Dad was in the military. During my formative elementary and middle school years, I lived in Washington D.C. on the Air force Base. I was able to make friends from several ethnicities. My neighbors Tommy and Ines were Hispanic, Bobby was white, and Nelson was black. The church I attended with my family was a mix of black and white. Because of this, I was used to being in mixed-race environments. My school on the other hand was predominantly black. I had great teachers who educated us on not only the basics of school but also the social rules of what it took to be successful as a black person in this country.
In college, I met the love of my life and we began dating. Her ethnic mix is Hispanic and white, and I am black. (This was back in the early 90s and we were attending a school in Arkansas.) When you have a mixed ethnic relationship like we had back then you could expect some issues. The looks of confusion, anger, and sometimes disgust were blatant and fairly frequent.
Also, during that time, my girlfriend's parents were not happy with our mixed-race relationship. And that was devastating for us. After not dating for a while to honor her parent's wishes, we eventually decided to go ahead and date. Then dating got serious and we made plans to get married. We were expecting the hammer to drop at the news of our wedding engagement and that my fiancé would be cut off from her family. Then we would be on our own to figure out a wedding and a marriage. But when we revealed our plans over the phone to her parents to get married, it did not go as expected. The hammer did not drop. Family ties were not cut. In fact, my future in-laws asked us to consider a new date for the wedding so that they could help with it! This began the first steps for us reconciling our relationship. It gave me a taste of what it takes to pursue unity. It has taken some time, but we have a very good relationship now.
Fast forward a couple of decades to a pandemic, the rise of racial tensions and awareness due to the murder of George Floyd and others. Also, I find myself at a church that is trying to be multi-ethnic, and part of a ministry called “Unity Builders” that is trying to help our church become unified. I find myself in a place that embraces our diversity as something helpful. So, I want to get the message of unity out in several different ways. One of those ways birthed Say It Well Apparel.
I have been in several groups and conversations where I begin to see the walls of division come down and the seeds of unity being planted -and that is exhilarating! I have witnessed people begin to move from talking about "those" people to talking about “us”. The more I get to be a part of spreading this message the more I want to share it. This is important because when people begin to appreciate our differences as valuable, needed, and complimentary, then our world will begin to shift in ways that I think are beyond our imagination. I think about what a world like that might look like for my children and their children. That is certainly a future worth working towards.
For now, I would love to get your feedback on what I just shared with you. Do you have a message to share or a future that you dream of and are working towards? I would love to know more about where you are on your journey right now.
Go ahead and hit reply to this email. I monitor the inbox and even though I’m not always able to reply, I read every message I get.
Enjoy the rest of your day :-),
Tquan Moore