A Highly Sensitive Person of Color – By Will Harper

I was born in the USA, to a beautiful and caring ethnically MIXED Mother, Josephine (French and Caribbean) and, unfortunately to a wicked, violent and confused straight up type casted Black Father, whom I simply call Mr. Man. My Mom is now 91 and living alone, but not lonely, in San Jose, California near my caring and loving sister and brother-in-law (Barb and Keith). Mr. Man is dancing with the devil 6 ft under. When I was 5 years old he was beating Mom, after one of his binge drinking sessions, because he was caught cheating on her (by me). As he was on top of her beating her with his bare knuckles, I not knowing what I was doing tried to kill Mr. Man with a pair of scissors, I was unsuccessful! However, years later he finally got his, His HEART gave out! Physically for him and both physically and metaphorically for me. Ok, eeeeeeeeenough! I will STOP the rant; I am just saying so you know that I am a little broken from that episode in my life.

Fortunately, I grew up under the voice and indirect tutelage of Martin Luther King Jr. His spoken words touched me deeply and must have awakened me to some extent. However, I was searching for some kind of truth to free me from the shackles of the Mr. Man prison I was still living in. And, also being forthcoming with my understanding of the bigger RACE picture. I realized Mr. Man was living in his own baggage of systemic racism in the good ole’ USA this may have caused him to be living in a distorted state. Hmmmm, even though we lived in the small seaside village of Monterey California, I mostly saw the evil of racism on TV, felt it in the streets and heard in the muddled multimedia background. My Mom never really talked about how to behave with other races, she never called names, put others down nor made me feel less than GREAT. But I was still impacted! I was labeled many things, Colored, Coon, Negro, Ni**er, Boy, African American, Black and today, well I am not sure what we are called today, don’t really care either. Ok, moving along, the riots came and went and we (people of color) thought maybe change had finally come, NOT! Hank Aaron, knocked it out of the park, Mohammed Ali float like a butterfly and stung like a bee, Malcolm X became an ‘A’ list influencer, Tiger Woods was a hole in one, the Williams sisters were doubling down in the tennis world and then ‘YES WE CAN’ became the new norm (for a while). Barack Obama made me so PROUD I cried for joy and I thought to myself Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ had become a REALITY, again NOT!

Today, I am forever changed, FOR THE BETTER. I am a registered HSP ☺ i.e., a Highly Sensitive Person of color. FANTASTIC!

All this because I met an angel who truly understands the seat of consciousness. My cherished friend and creative collaborator in many film productions, she is the author of  The Highly Sensitive Person, Elaine Aron, Ph.D, Researcher, Phycologist, best-selling author,  loving wife,  Mother, Grandmother and the Godmother of us Highly Sensitive People. A movement she orchestrated in concert with her NON-HIGHLY SENSITIVE and loving husband Dr Arthur Aron the voice of intimate relations and love.

OKAY, now for the POINT OF NO RETURN – 2020 two major crisis have simultaneously touched down on Planet Earth amid the Climate Crisis. This is a MAJOR WHOA DUDE MOMENT! It seems it has taken one crisis, the CORONA VIRUS 19 pandemic to keep the global community away from each other (social distancing). And another one social injustice to bring us together this is a total paradox, yet it is ‘Supercalifragilistic’ beyond fantastic because we now have the world’s attention. First you get their attention then you educate!

So, all of this said, my goal is to be an advocate of educating the public with what I have learned from embracing my Highly Sensitive Gift. I will do so with shorts films and writing on YouTube @ WillHarperG2G_HSM. MLK was a sensitive soul, I was told by many of his friends and family he was a deep, deep thinker, empathy towards all, cried easily, he lived in an overstimulated state, yet he was a true visionary feeling and reading the state of affairs, affairs that needed immediate attention, not a blind eye. He witnessed the pain and systemic racism in the USA.  MLK said, “True education doesn’t result in the simple ability to spit out memorized facts and score well on standardized tests. Education should enable the student to learn how to reason, how to determine the false from fact. The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character that is the goal of true education.”

Through my new YouTube vlog and my association with the Aron’s and all my collaborators HSP and NON, we will engage, embrace and educate. I like to call it edutainment via what I do best, mass communicate utilizing film, music and digital applications.  I promise to expose all people, especially people of color about the innate trait of Highly Sensitivity.  1.4 billion people that’s over 20% of the world population are HSP. We have so much wisdom to bring to the table to continue this trajectory of repairing our broken country and our world.

We are currently on a roll. This is the time to stay on track. It is an exciting time; electrifying is what I would call it.  I have come a long way since Mr. Man kicked me and my Mom’s spirit around. Thank you, Dr. Elaine Aron, for the bail out, I will take it from here ☺

I am a highly sensitive person. I am a highly sensitive person of color. I am proud to be who I am and what I am, and I am looking forward, because the future is now. Hopefully, we can one day say these words, “Free at Last, Free at Last, thank God almighty we’re free at last.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. August 28, 1963

Will Harper