The Struggle of Marginalized Voices

By Opa Hysea Wise
Author of ‘No Place to Hide’

It was the 1960’s, and I remember as a youngster, traveling across the southern portion of the United States with my family. My father, an Army officer, had recently been reassigned to a different military base. I sat in the back of our station wagon and, from my side of the backseat window, gazed toward the barren landscape while my younger brother stared out toward his. We were both quiet, probably just having had a spat about one of us “touching the other.”  The light of the summer sun felt harsh, the air hot and dry. The Temptations latest single, My Girl, played on the radio, yet the cool Motown sound could not drown out the whispers of fear that emanated from a conversation between my mom and dad. My brother and I simultaneously turned our attention toward the front seat as their voices rose above the music. My father looked shook his head. Through the rearview mirror, I could see his vacant stare as he listened to my mom.

“I know, but I have no choice,” my mom said flatly, smoothing her hands over her slacks.

After a few minutes, my father spotted a department store. He turned off the highway into the parking lot, pulling to a slow stop to allow my mother to get out of the car.  

It has been some 40 odd years since I’ve heard the words, “I have no choice.” For me, they epitomized the struggle—the moment by moment struggle of marginalized people making room for themselves in a world full of unwelcome. It was a moment like so many thousands of moments, where my mother, a woman of color, had no choice but to muster the courage to enter a store she would not be welcomed to purchase what she needed. 

I’ve had years of grieving the lack of freedom afforded to everyone else who is not female, not of color, and not queer. In 2018, I began to review the decades of struggle. I thought about the persistent, life-sucking fear that seemed to be a constant thread in my moms’ life. As a queer mixed-race woman, I understood her fear. I noted that we—the collective LGBTQI+ and BIPOC communities across Canada and the United States have broken through fences of marginalization, replacing fear with courage, offering love where only hate once existed. Yet too many of us remain hamstrung by the stories we were told or tell ourselves about who we are.

In the middle of meditation one morning, I had a hair-brained notion of inspiration. I would write a novel about some profound life lessons wrapped in an engaging story. I’ve learned that the most impactful stories are often the ones that come from the core of who we are. While our queer and BIPOC communities have begun to write about how we are more broadly living our lives out loud, I felt a strong calling to add my voice to their chorus. 

My debut novel, No Place to Hide, blurs the line between fiction and non-fiction and tells the story of Smythe Windwalker Daniels, a mixed-race, queer woman seeking to find meaning in her life, but comes face to face with a choice that will impact not only her life but the lives of people an ocean away. The novel is a modern-day twist on the hero/heroine’s journey, coined by Joseph Campbell and, in some ways, echos my life. The story is a metaphor about how our journey can unfold, and it offers just enough suspense and mystery to keep the reader entertained. While the novel loosely tackles hotbeds of controversy, including racial discrimination, indigenous injustices, the unscrupulousness of some agri-big businesses, it also examines our ingrained limiting belief systems and the innate human need for belonging. I hope you, the reader, enjoy the novel and perhaps, walk away with a lesson that you can apply to your own life.

ABOUT THE BOOK “No Place to Hide” :

Against hope, Smythe Windwalker Daniels’ anonymity is compromised, and a threat has been made against her life. The danger impacts not only her life but the lives of those around her. She reluctantly accepts the FBI’s protection, hoping to testify and bring a promise of justice to a community. Smythe is a woman with vision in her eyes and fire in her soul. From a young age, Smythe was discriminated against as a mixed-race girl in a predominantly white neighborhood. She travels to Hawaii to escape the corporate rat race, only to get entangled in a pesticide poisoning cover-up attempt by a mega corporation. While on the run, she seeks to find meaning in events that now threaten her life. Through a series of misadventures, she discovers how all events are all woven together in this tapestry called “life.” As she uses her past experience to find meaning in her present, she begins to see beauty in the midst of chaos. But the harder she tries to hide, the more difficult it is to survive.

Opa Hysea Wise is an American author, born to mixed race parents. Like so many people of color, she came to experience a sense of “otherness,” which fueled her desire to discuss diversity as the woven fabric within the American tapestry. She worked as a Training and Development specialist and manager in Government and Corporate organizations. Often tasked to develop and deliver diversity courses, Opa brought a sense of understanding, compassion and a call to action to her audience, with the firm knowledge that returning to the connection we all have would be but one step to returning to love.  As both a Jack Canfield Success Coach and an author, Opa Hysea Wise looks to set a fire within the hearts of both her students and her readers. Her book No Place to Hide released on Nov. 3, 2020. 

Website: https://opahyseawise.com