At the beginning of every February I am filled with quiet optimism about the idea of 28 days to celebrate my heritage, my people, and my culture. With the energy of Martin Luther King Jr's Holiday still hanging over me, I usually make a plan to attend all sorts of festivals, seminars, events, do research, learn to cook new soul food, do hours of endless research on Google, and share my experience with my friends. Without fail, February, as far as black history month goes, always disappoints. It's not that I'm disappointed really, its more like being on the way from annoyance to anger. Before I continue I'd like to note that this has easily been the best black history month I've ever had; I joined the University's Black Student Union, belatedly met the professors of the African-American Studies department, finished season 3 of Boondocks, heard Kendrick's new single, attended an NAACP party (which has been the surprise success of the year so far), and was enriched by Nationally Syndicated journalist/badass Ta-Nehisi Coates. However there's a few things I'd like to get off my chest about how this "celebration" of black history. As you guys may already know, I like to do things in threes, so here goes: First of all, if this really is BLACK history month, why are we not fed the hundreds of thousands of years Afrikan (yes with a k) civilizations thrived and were at many times the envy of the rest of the civilized world. Some of the first and most vibrant civilizations were Afrikan: The Mali empire, the Songhay empire, the Egyptian empire, the Ghanan empire, and the Kingdom of Zimbabwe were all beautiful, thriving, successful nation-states. Not only are we never taught about the mere existence of these civilizations, we are blinded from all of their essential contributions; In Mali Saturn's rings and Jupiter's moon's were first observed, the spiral shape of the Milky Way was discovered, and the calendar year was estimated at 365.25 days. The Egyptians provided a system of myths and fables that would later be used by the developers of Judaism and Christianity. The Egyptians also came up with the concept of zero and the right angle, and developed the geometry that we still use in physics and engineering. Songhay's Timbuktu was a marvel of the world and the basis for the design of many European cities. To call February "Black History" month and then exclude Afrikan history is to disrespect these and other examples of how Black people have always been enriching the world. Even when we get down to what Black History Month actually is, negro history, we are still cheated. The education system only feeds us sanitized versions of Black Americans who are blown up to mythical stature so that they seem more like legends than people who walked in the very same shoes we did. These images never conflict with normalized American ideals, nor do they show Black kids images that can serve as concrete role models. What I mean to say is that we are not taught that we can be engineers, lawyers, teachers, journalists, or any other realistic portraits of influential Blacks that we can use to shape ourselves around. Instead we are fed these larger than life images that are stain washed for mainstream consumption so that they don't challenge America's two guiding principles; Capitalism and White Supremacy. Finally, I've found that both individuals and groups have had the audacity to exploit black history month to push an agenda which often would disparage black people. I saw a Democratic Senator tweet something along the lines of: Black unemployment is twice the national average, it's time to pass unemployment reform. #blackhistorymonth. HOW CAN PEOPLE NOT REALIZE HOW INSULTING THAT IS. The black unemployment was twice the national average in January, December, hell its been twice the national average for 20 years. The tweet didn't arise out of concern for the black condition, it was a selfish tweet that had only to do with moving forward his own agenda. The Republican Party approved of a black history month ad campaign. THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. ENOUGH SAID. There are also corporations that decide that its okay to use the images of blacks to market their own goods. Nike released a line of all kinds of apparel with the images of historical black athletes on them. While at the same time Nike exploits the black athletes it sponsors by using their namesake to promote products while cheating them out of the profits. For example Michael Jordan still isn't a billionaire, that's ridiculous. Not only that, but Nike also mainstreams black fashion and sells it back to black people for a higher price. For somebody that actually celebrates black history every day of their life, having the images of my culture vandalized in the way that they are every February is a hard pill to swallow.
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Yesterday I found myself in a room with a few dozen other mostly Black students having a pretty candid discussion with Ta-Nehisi Coates. For a while I was nervous, I mean, the last time I saw Ta-Nehisi Coates he was on MSNBC talking with Melissa Harris-Perry discussing his essay which was being talked about ALL AROUND THE NATION. THIS IS ONE OF AMERICAS TOP BLACK MINDS. Anyways I was struck at not only his sharp intelligence and ability to diagnose social, political, and racial phenomena, but the ability of this writing giant (He's actually 6'4") to shrink himself to a level that made it possible for shy, starstruck, brilliant minds to engage with him.
In my short time around Ta-Nehisi Coates I picked up on three lessons that I'd like to share with you. 1) The best way to touch people is through selfish work When we were talking to Mr. Coates about his career and love of writing I found that although he did enjoy the national spotlight, what really drives his work is himself. He described his work as "selfish". Mr. Coates explained that he wrote about the things that he wrote about because it brought himself peace. As I listened to him address the crowd at the reception he explained how he forgets sometimes that his work touches others, and that he really writes for himself. I've heard similar things from Hip-Hop artists that inspire me. In fact Ta-Nehisi told us that for 19 years he wrote on his blog without many people, other than his father, taking notice and was completely happy with his contribution. It brought peace to me because it made me realize that I don't have to necessarily become prominent, or well known to be at peace with what I've done on earth. That is liberating. 2) Optimism is not always necessary He said most of what he writes is dark and negative. When you write about slavery and the continuous plundering of Black people in America it's hard to write much that is positive. However Mr. Coates is one of the only people I've heard speak about these issues with the same commitment to absolute truth telling. He said that we may never see the change that we thirst for in our lifetime, that the United States of America still operates under the policy of white supremacy, and that there's not much that an individual can do to side step the institutional barriers to black people. While he said that there is a moral obligation to stand up to injustice, there definitely is no guarantee that real concrete change can be achieved without the luck of external forces that are out of our control. 3) I'm not insane When I heard Ta-Nehisi say "The entire white middle-class is the result of the most grandiose of Affirmative action programs" I realized; "I'M NOT CRAZY". For a while I've been having an internal struggle about whether or not I'm paranoid about the extent to which white supremacy and anti-black racism have control over America's socio-political landscape. However after hearing somebody who's winning journalistic awards, is nationally syndicated, and is a legitimate voice on the American landscape speak about white supremacy and racism as directly and outright as Ta-Nehisi Coates did I've been reassured that I'm not out of my mind. (The sad thing is that I know that this is a typical psychological effect of micro-aggression and yet it still somehow finds me). Yesterday taught me that artists like Kendrick, Hughes, and Coates are at their core only inspirations. For their art to truly touch the world I must be able to channel that inspiration into my own work. Its beautiful really -515 |
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