Black History Month

    People can take it the wrong way. Each of us have our own views and thoughts. I think it is important to respect many people's takes on it. For instance, I met a Black man a few days ago who thought that we should not make a thing of it:

    1. He does not celebrate Black history month because, since we do not celebrate "White History Month", why single out the Blacks?

    2. One person I know goes over all the atrocities that Blacks have had to suffer in the United States, which includes not just force servitude and inhuman property claims (slavery), but lynchings, erasing of names, records, graves. Oh, and laws and enforcement that keeps Black people down. Now, this was around one or two days, so perhaps he can go more into the greater things of African-Americans. To be fair, it was not all doom and gloom. He mentioned Harlem and a few other strengths of Black history.

    3. There are those who put Blacks above others, and only myopically tout the virtues of this community. This would be extreme, and likely racist.

    4. There are White supremacists who put Blacks down and claim that Whites are some kind of ideal. Definitely racist, extreme.

    5. There are many of us who want to be moderate, recognizing that the notion of celebrating and remembering the achievements and travails of one color or ethnic group is not to be exclusive for or against them. It is about many, many nuances that interact that involve all of us. If it happened to one person, one community or nation, be they white, Black, brown, Asian, it happened to all of us. And, there are people of mixed race who would count as all of the above. We are Tiger Woods sometimes. Or maybe a lot of the time.

    Can we celebrate, remember, memorialize, mourn, recognize, and do all things and come across edified, nutrified, better for the effort? I think so.

    There have been African-Americans in the now United States since 1619, as many acknowledge the year that the first enslaved arrive here. They are us, we are them. To separate the Blacks and the whites and all the rest does not tell the full story.

    Of course, there is the economic points of view.

    6. Class and power students and advocates would argue that race and racism boils down to class and control. People will use whatever tactic to make money, keep or hold control, maintain their status and power. If it means using or exploiting race to accomplish this, or gender, or religion, or political or ideological persuasion, that is what they do. Machiavelli or Sun Tsu or whomever, Mohammed or Moses of Jesus. Malcom X or Martin Luther King, Booker T. Washington or W.E.B. Dubois, Drake or Kendrick Lamar. The debates rage on. Langston Hughes or James Baldwin, Toni Morrison or Alice Walker.

    And on.

    Blog it.