Personal Black History - Explanation

    Every one of us have a personal Black history, no matter if we are Black or not. Some people are more part of it than others. A white person in Minnesota living in 1947 may not have lived miles from an African-American, may have not known any personally, but because he or she was a baseball fan, they became aware of the new guy on the block, Jackie Robinson. He, a figure  of American Black History, touched the lives of millions of U.S. citizens, of all hues and creeds. People who paid attention to baseball, or even some who did not, were a part of Black history.

    Maybe that same white family, again, who may not know any African-Americans personally, observed Jesse Owens amaze the world at the 1936 Berlin Games. Perhaps such a person in our shared history and national and international community inspired that family, hundreds of miles from those who are Black, to be a track athlete?

    

    No matter how Black, white, brown, or whatever racial background, genetics, or cultural influences you may have, all of us are a part of Black History. They are we, we are they, their history is our history, world history, national history, church history, community history.

    Personal history. 

    I see the world through many sports lenses, but we can also conduct our analysis through economics (which captures most of human studies, including the following:), the arts, government, the sciences, on and on.

    We call out and laud the first Black man to do this, or woman to do this. That's fair. We celebrate the firsts in many things, perhaps everything. The first in family to attend college, the first Guyanese in space, the first woman to pass Rangers school. 

    Each of us do and accomplish our firsts in life.

    A very famous case: Barach Obama. The first Black president. He is half white, and raised by his white mother and grandparents. So, in totality, not as Black as some might wish or hope. In the end, it does not matter how Black he is, but to some it does.

    He explains in his autobiography how he came to know Black culture better because of a close high school friend. In the United States, mainland, first Los Angeles and later the East Coast, he grew and evolved in his Black identity. In marrying Michelle in Chicago, he truly entered into the "Black Community". 

    Perhaps it is sad that in this day and age, in 2025, that we, or many of us, choose to or feel compelled to define how "Black" or how "white" or how "Asian" or how "whatever" it is. Take your pick: Jewish, Catholic, Irish, ghetto, rich/Buji. Buji? We say it a lot, meaning rich or elegant, or opulent. High class, or expensive.

    Anyway, this is Black History month; I am trying to analyze and honor it. That is what writers and thinkers do. Plus, this is my first day off work in twelve days. What else should I do?

    Some, including family that I am close to, have gotten mad when I try to identify further who and what people are. They can get righteously indignant, with "who cares"? "What does it matter?'

    This happened when I returned from a study abroad in Israel and the Holy Land, Palestine. We studied history, religion, identities, like Jewish, Muslims, Christians, and others.

    Some of us dig deeper and try to solve things, or at least understand things better.

    How Black are you? It is not all ethnicity and skin color. Also, Black and white do not always apply, as people are just people, very often. A worker, a mother, a student, a conscientious citizen.

    That is what we should be, in the end. Thoughtful and meaningful. Careful and notestaking.

    Yes. We are not a certain percentage of one race, culturally, or another. But we have tendencies that are generalized within different contexts.

    

    Right. Blog it.

    Shout out to Amarea and Gregory. Two Black people that I admired. We lost them too soon. 

    One last year, March 2024. The other the first month or so of the pandemic, 2020.

    God bless us all, of all shades and colors.