Black History Month 2017
I’m thinking about you all given everything that is happening in our country and world right now. This is certainly a challenging time for many people, especially for students, who may not know how to make sense of it. You and the work that you are doing as educators, organizers and fighters for justice and equity are immensely critical. You are the nation-builders. You steer our future leaders to their spark. What you do in your classrooms and communities today literally determine the climate of our country and world tomorrow.
Today is the eve of Black History Month, which calls me to reflect on the fact that the intentional erasure of our history – yes our histor
y: African American history is United States History – has not only hindered our ability as a populace to connect to, appreciate, and support one another; but it has also impacted our capacity to strategize and actualize change. Black history reminds us that enslavement begins with the elimination of history, identity and community… enslavement is spiritual and psychological before it is physical. It reminds us that the template for the United States experiment was the theft of land; the genocide, dehumanization and theft of First Nation and African people; the marginalization of White women; and the manipulation of poor White men. It allows us to see that everything that is happening today – everything – good and bad, happened before.
Our history also reminds us that there were eras of power and progress by people of color before the United States even existed. It teaches us that marginalized people were powerful and persistent throughout the journey of this nation. In spite of the systems of oppression in place, people have not only survived, they have thrived. Most importantly, history teaches us that our greatest successes as well as our basic survival have always depended upon the strength of our ties to each other. Black History shows us that we should not fear systems, politicians, businessmen, or people of influence who lack the moral fiber or ethical fortitude to honor the humanity of all people, for our fears are precisely what feeds oppressive powers. History reminds us of our resilience, allows us to study our strengths, and provides us the playbook of the past from which to strategize for our present.
My point: this year, don’t look at Black History Month as simply 28 days to remember a few popular African American heroes. That is a disservice. Study. Strategize. Seek the guidance of the millions of men, women and children who found a way to survive and thrive for centuries in a world that has created a plethora of odds against them… people who have managed to do it with a level of creativity, charisma and confidence that has led the same world to idolize (and sometimes outright steal) their speech… their step… and their style. Learn the stories of African brilliance that started at the beginning of human kind; that influenced everything that we know ourselves to be today, and that connects us all to each other. Remember. Re-envision. Revolutionize.
And most of all, teach the children.
Power and revolutionary love to all of you.
-J