roots Archives - Diane DeBella and I Am Subject

Who gets to celebrate independence today?
By: Diane DeBella
Date: July 4, 2022
I am not celebrating my country's independence today. The history of the United States horrifies me. The atrocities committed by ‘the greatest nation in the world,’ even before it was a nation, have been denied and ignored for so long that the truth can’t even be spoken aloud. Take, for ...
50 Years
By: Diane DeBella
Date: June 26, 2022
After Friday’s Supreme Court ruling was released, I kept hearing the number 50. 50 years of legal precedent had been undone; a Constitutional right that we had for 50 years had been taken away. Four generations of women in my family spanned those 50 years. Out of all of us—my grandmother, ...
Creating Hope One Girl at a Time
By: Diane DeBella
Date: October 3, 2021
When she walked into the room, my first thought was, ‘How can all that fierce determination fit inside such a tiny young woman?’ She began to speak—slowly, deliberately, with patience, strength, and grace—and I sat transfixed, tears streaming down my face as I struggled with my own sense of shame ...