Black History Month Conversations

    I try to learn things about African-American history--to me this being a part of all history, especially during February. Despite any notions of those who were elected to power proclaiming, currently, that DEI is a bad word, which means Diversity and Equity and something else, like Inclusion; I do believe learning is key, and most of us do not do enough of it.

    I share Black history with colleagues, both white, Black, and some Latinos, too. All of us matter, I truly believe.

    I was sharing some facts, stories, anecdotes, and some "trivia" (which is usually not trivial), with a coworker. He brought up some ugly parts of Black history in the United States, which is shameful, awful, horrific, and not right. I thought that I acknowledged those points, and accepted some of those facts and terrible incidents, or trends. I shared some better stories, or a couple of what I think are more positive things, which in the balance of things, is what is better than all negative or pessimistic. Because it was not all one way. There has always been good among the bad, yes?

    Black history is not to only call out the evils and injustices, but there is room for optimistic celebration, too. Right?

    I shared how Bill Garrett was taken by the Indiana basketball team in the late 1940s, despite that being against the Big Ten racial policy. I shared how my family and church group got to restore and clean some graves not far away, and that they discovered some graves that had not been recognized before. His stories were powerfully tragic and sad, about whole graveyards were covered or pushed around, forgotten. Because they were African-American tombs, left to be ignored or worse. Destroyed.

    He cited some other atrocities, which I think should always be remembered. Not to discard or avoid. Face the demons of who and what we have been. No question. Laws, policing, policies, economic inequality, etcetera. The fight and struggle for human and racial justice must continue. Always.

   No question. No argument here. The same colleague (I do believe that my words will be read and shared to many others someday, I accept and almost cherish this), who is Black, brought up Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. Dubois. He pronounced it the French way, which is not how Dubois himself or others who know the historically Black figure pronounce. I was in a Black history class in 2001, I think it was, at the undergraduate level, but I was a Masters candidate-- when the professor corrected a student for saying it wrong. I heard it said on the radio that way, just yesterday.

    Dubois. Rhymes with boys. Boyz. Like noise. Anyway, I corrected my friend and colleague. I think he took it hard. Maybe. I also said that his contemporary rival or school of thought was Booker T. Washington, not Marcus Garvey. That was not all I shared either, because I talked about enslaved people's quarters not far from here, which was better than at George Washington's birthplace, and how I identified more with the people living in the hovel than the white rich folk of the compound, or plantation. Is it called a plantation today? Sully historical ground? Herndon, or whatever town near Dulles? Close to the Air and Space Museum?

    Anyway, I told him based on my personal history, I felt that I empathized or sympathized or identified more with them, the enslaved living in a shack that still stands, than the people living in the mansion at the center of the grounds. He said that was weird. Well, when he is 54 with five kids and living to make a buck and doing quite a bit to survive and even thrive, but save for the future, which has not been an easy path for me, and I know many others, he and I will both look back on how weird my point was. Of course, if living, I will be well into my 70s by then.

   

     May we all make it!

    He wanted to explain to me later, today, that I should not lecture about a thing that I know less about (or have not lived or experienced, or shared). I apologized for coming across that way; I did not mean to counter or dismiss anything that he said. He, my coworker, who is in his late 30s, he emphasized, knows of things better, he implied. He mentioned "facts", and the ways things really are. I tried to assure him that I was with him and did not want to go against his facts, or oppose him.

    

    So, I tried to make amends when he called me out for perhaps correcting him about the couple of things that I mentioned about W.E.B. Dubois.

    So today he and I shared a few things, and I hope that it sat well with him. It left me wondering, but he made his point. Or points. And I am left here on my public blog to scrape up any pieces, do some 'splaining myself.

    Make sense?

    After all of it, I do not know that much, my colleague closer to two decades my junior may know a lot more than me about Black History, but we came ahead by discussing it. And even to be able to disagree. But we did not disagree on much, let me add. We agreed that U.S. history has been bad for the Black people of our nation.

    Contrast that, with the bus driver that I shared about yesterday, who is an African-American but wearing a Trump Maga cap and saying he doesn't celebrate Black history, but White history. He had a few things to say. About white people being the original slaves, and have accomplishments that were more important to tout and proclaim.

    I shared a little about that, and my coworker explained that could make a lot of people mad. Got it.

    Sure, black people for Trump is not the biggest starter in many circles. But I was sharing some facts. Nothing fabricated.

    And, this from a 54 year-old guy working on a weekend, on a bus listening to an opinionated bus driver, sharing his feelings... Sunday when he would prefer to be with his family at church. Making money is something that I have been doing for quite while. Not always that well. Trying, though.

    I have had to schlep and hustle a bit, and trying to make do. Today at work I wrote something that tries to capture a bit of me and my life. Perhaps my character, as Elder Bednar of the Church describes.

    "Not smart enough to avoid having to work harder for..." I cannot quite remember how I finished it. I will revisit it. Worker harder to accomplish my goals. Something to that effect.

    Black History Month. 

    I and a few others have been learning, growing, sharing, and to me and hopefully that is what Black History month is about: to learn about and celebrate who we are, which includes many, many African-Americans and others who have contributed to the betterment of our lives. Legacies. Legends. Forgotten yet significant people. Those who deserve more credit. Those who were shunned, but deserve more of a spotlight and hope based on their efforts and their meanings to us now and into the future.

    I will hold it there. There is more to share and explain, but the above is a lot. And, significant.

    Rose, the guy from my Army combat life saving class, and more.

    Blog it Black History month.