The People Who Forgot Who They Are -

The People Who Forgot Who They Are

I first heard about this story The Eagles Who Thought They Were Chickens years ago. But today, it carries a different weight, a deeper truth. Now I have to ask… Is this a story about eagles who thought they were chickens? Or is it a story about people who were taught to believe they were something less than who they were created to be?

I hear it differently now. Today, I hear it as a story about us, Black people of African descent before the Middle Passage, before the disruption of identity, before the era of enslavement. Listen to my version adapted from The Eagles Who Thought They Were Chickens by Mychal Wynn. Here’s my version…

Long ago, there was a people who knew who they were. They understood their strength. They moved with purpose. They were not confused about their identity or their value. They were like eagles, created to soar, to see from a higher vantage point, to live with a sense of direction and dignity. But something happened, disruption came. Displacement came followed by organized systems. And what was once known became interrupted. Somewhere along the way, the next generation was raised in a different environment, one that did not reflect their true nature. The people were taught how to survive, not how to soar.

They learned how to stay low and adjust. How to fit within limits that were never meant for them. And so, they adapted. They learned the language of the yard. They learned the behaviors of the yard. They learned to believe what the yard told them – “This is who you are.”

And here is the truth we must sit with – they did not forget because they were weak. They forgot because they were taught something different. So they lived. They worked. They raised families.
They did the best they could with what they knew. All the while carrying wings they were not using. Carrying power they were not accessing and holding perspective they had never been shown.

Then one day, someone interrupted the pattern. Someone who remembered who they are. Someone who could see beyond the yard. Someone who looked at them and said, “That is not all you are.” Now understand this is where the story becomes uncomfortable because awakening is not easy. When you have built a life around survival, the idea of transformation can feel like a threat. When everyone around you is moving the same way, choosing differently can feel like betrayal.

And when you have been told your whole life that you are something small, it takes courage to believe you were created for something more. Some people listened. Some people began to question. Some people felt something stirring inside of them, something familiar, yet long buried. They stretched. They tried. They failed. They tried again. And slowly… the people began to rise. Not all at once. Not perfectly. But intentionally. They lifted above what had defined them. They saw differently. They understood differently. They remembered!

Even though they heard the word, not everyone left the yard. Some stayed. Not because they could not leave, but because they could not yet see themselves outside of it. And that, too, is part of the story. This is not a story about chickens. This is a story about identity. It is a cultural story because environments shape what we come to believe about ourselves. It is a psychological story because what we are taught becomes what we internalize. And it is a spiritual story because there is something within us that remembers, even when everything around us tells us to forget.

The question is not whether we have wings. The question is: “Do we recognize them?” And if we do… do we have the courage to use them? Because once you remember, you carry a responsibility not just to rise, but to reach back. To remind your family, friends, and others – “You were never meant to stay in the yard.”

And that, family, is how we heal. Not by pretending the yard never existed, but by refusing to let it define who we are. We are not what we were forced to become. We are who God created us to be. And some of us are finally remembering how to fly. Remember who you are. Remember whose you are. Teach your children who they are and whose they are and when you are ready rise, and reach back for someone else.