A Celebration of Struggle, Triumph, and Change....

February is a month filled with both, celebration and revelation.

Celebrations of any kind should be a time to reflect on the accomplishments - as well as the hurdles – of a person or people.  This month, as children around the country are taught about a handful of American heroes who happened to be black, we should all pause long enough to reflect on WHY these accomplishments are more than mundane.

 

 

Much of the “history” we repeatedly celebrate is no more than two or three generations old.  Our children are being corralled together into a “group think” mentality where they will no longer research the struggles of their own race, but instead, accept only the accomplishments of a select few.  Although, I do applaud the heroes of the civil rights movement, the abolitionists, and the inventors who changed the perceptions of African-Americans, I also celebrate the millions of unsung heroes who came to these distant shores in chains and sacrificed their lives, families, and more in this unending attempt to be seen as equals in America. 

In celebrating American history, we need to remove our blinders that tell us of only the good, palatable stories of change.  We, as a country brimming with diversity, should begin to teach REAL HISTORY in our schools every month of the year instead of dissecting one race from another and only speaking of accomplishments.

I say this because I feel that if we were to teach history as it happened instead of how we choose to remember it, there would be a rebirth of the principles we call pride, integrity, and community. Our leaders, doctors, inventors, and more were pioneers who created out of a necessity - not for fame or fortune.  Economic disparity and seperatism birthed great leaders, but let us not forget the turmoil from which they rose.  These were people who were trying to better their lives simply because many services and priviledges were denied to people of color.  Yet, their creativity forged on to benefit all of America.  


There is an entire generation of youth who only repeat rhetoric with no real attachment to their real history.  They rattle off names of “history makers” without realizing that they came from an era of struggle, hatred, violence and mutilation.  If history – as it happened – was taught in our schools, there might be a better understanding of how far we (as a country) have come.  And, how much further we must go.

When I read recent stories like those of Rodney King, Chavis Carter,and  Trayvon Martin, I liken them to Emmet Till, Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Denise McNair.  Although fifty years have passed since the senseless killings of the 1963 church bombings, this country still has an alarming rate of childhood murders that are dismissed without repentance.   Disguising racism and hatred in our history books by airbrushing facts with more pleasant memories is not a resolve to a history filled with oppression.  Rather than avoiding the “elephant in the room” wouldn’t it be better to learn from our past so that we (as a country) are not doomed to repeat it?

 

 

Have you noticed that all the movies nominated for awards this year were themes of black oppression?  Mandela, Fruitvale Station, and Twelve Years a Slave were NOT cinematic accomplishments – they were actual struggles lived out by men of color across this globe.  Rather than downgrade our place in history to a two hour block of time or a twenty-eight day celebration, we should openly acknowledge and celebrate these struggles daily.  These three movies depict three different times in history where one race is oppressed and stripped of their civil rights; yet, this same reverence for the struggles of race in society is “watered down” and made to seem irrelevant by teachings that omit them completely. 

The teachings of Willie Lynch seem to still be in effect.  How much longer will the minds of minorities be enslaved to traditional limitations?

Parents, I encourage you to visit historic sites and expand your children’s minds far beyond the confines of a finely edited school book.  I encourage you to seek out the oldest member in your community and simply listen to their stories of better and worse days.   I emplore you to sit at the knee of the oldest family member and learn of the heritage from which you came so that the stories of our own, familiar heroes will never fade.   

History is being lost every day and it is up to us to reclaim it.  There is no shame in knowing from whence we came if it helps to propel us to the heights in which we can soar!

Alas, I digress.  This is just ONE Man's Opinion... What is yours?