Someone may be wondering: Why is she writing about Black History? Isn't Black History over?
Let me just clear the air:
Well, it might be "over" if you are not Black or African-American. But, if you are one of the 14% of Americans described as such, Black History is everyday. It is constantly being written by each one of us who carries within our genetic code the characteristics that define us as such, mainly the melanin that infuses our skin with color, making some of us more obviously black than others. From ebony to cafe au lait to near ivory, we vary in shade and many of us are of mixed ethnicity & culture (Caribbean, Afrcan, American, Latino, Native American, Asian), and to the on-looker that can confuse the conversation and dialogue. Which is why we should talk. We are not all the same.
As I pondered today what I wanted to share, the words Black Thought Thursday popped into my head. God deals with me in rhyme and analogy, and alliteration, so I just go with the flow. I had been reading this wonderful book about the speeches and letters, and lectures of African American leaders, writers, poets, and statesmen, teachers, peanut farmers and university founders, and I was floored by their eloquence, their precision in commuicating that change needed to happen for our people and by our people.
They faced the hostilities and predjudices of the day head on and did not flinch at the backlash they recieved for plain speaking, as my friends would call it. I wondered, where are those voices of change now? The voices most of us hear are so politically correct, and neutral that you cannot really be sure what side they are speaking from.
These Voices of Change demanded a NOW answer to the growing problems of racism, economic, social, and educational disparity. They did not have a "sit back and shut up" mentality. They demanded justice based on the document of justice that was put in place first for white males, but essentially for everyone. The declaration that "all men are created equal" was to apply to humanity, not just to one race, or one gender, or to the person who was able-bodied but to all. I want to share with you some of the statements that stood out and challenge you to do a little reflecting of your own and research some of these great voices of change.
On Slavery
A slave was rarely killed. They were too valuable. It was quite easier and more effective to sell him Down South. In slave times, a Negro was kept subservient and submissive by frequency and severity of scourging.~ Ida B. Wells Barnett
The white man's happiness cannot be purchased at the price of the black man's misery.~Frederick Douglass
Reflect: What way has slavery been institutionalized in our society?
Lynching is the aftermath of slavery.~ Mary Church Terrell
Reflect: Do you think political, economic, social lynching exists?
When you give away your right to speak, you put the next generation back in chains.
Reflect: What social justice efforts have your children or those you mentor seen you speak out about?
On Equality & Democracy
What the people want is simple. They want an America as good as its promise.~Barbara Jordan
The color of the skin is in no way connected with strength of mind or intellectual powers.~ Benjamin Banneker
We wish to plead our own cause. Too long others have spoken for us.~ John Russwurm
This country can have no more democracy than it accords and guarantees to the humblest and weakest citizen. ~James Weldon Johnson
The American Dream reminds us that every man is heir to the legacy of worthiness.~MLK
If America is to remain a first class nation she can no longer have second class citizens.~MLK
The price America must pay for the continued exploitation of the Negro and other minority groups is the price of its own destruction.~MLK
Reflect: Do you think we have made real progress in racial and social equality?
Now, more than ever before, America is challenged to bring her noble dream into reality.~MLK This thought still rings true in 2012.
On The Struggle
It may get me crucified, I may even die. But I want it said, even if I die in the struggle that, "he died to make men free." ~MLK
Sadly, this came to pass when he was assasinated on 1968.
The citizens of America want and deserve more than a recital of problems.~Barbara Jordan
How can we begin to build institutions that allow people to relate as human beings? This country has not done that. Especially around the concept of black or white.~Stokeley Carmichael
Reflect: How can we end the struggle for equality personally?
On Globalization
All of us must develop a world perspective if we are to survive. The American Dream will not become a reality devoid of a larger dream of a world brotherhood and peace and goodwill. MLK
The world in which we live is a world of geographical oneness and we are challenged now to make it spiritually one?
Reflect: Do you think globalization has minimized the needs of people of color who are still underserved?
On Self Education & Empowerment
If you want to hide something from a black man, put it in a book.~Anon
The whole world opened to me when I learned to read.~Mary McLeod Bethune
One of the things young people should learn is how to see for yourself and listen for yourself and think for yourself.If you get in the habit of going by what you hear others say about someone or what others think about someone instead of searching that thing out for yourself, you'll be walking east when you think you are going west...the most important thing we can learn today is to think for ourselves. ~ Malcolm X
Every time black people move in this country, they are forced to defend their position before they move.~ Stokeley Carmichael
If you form the habit of taking what someone says about a thing without checking it for yourself, you'll find that other people will have you hating your friends and loving your enemies.~Malcolm X
Reflect: Do you see double standards when it comes to accountability?
On Integration, Segregation, and Responsibility to the Race
What integration is in this country: You do what I tell you to do, and then we'll let you sit at the table with us.If there is going to be integration it has to be 2-way. If you believe in integration, come live in Watts. Send your children to the ghetto schools. Let's talk about that.~ Stokeley Carmichael
We commit racial suicide by not sounding the alarm and protecting our own children from the poverty that ravages their dreams. Marian Wright Edelman
Integration is subterfuge for the maintainance of white supremacy.~Stokeley Carmichael
Hug your grandparents and say, "I want to thank you for what you've done to make me and my life possible."~Alex Haley
Reflect: What responsibility, if any do you think you have to your race?
On the Black Middle Class
Unless the black middle class begins to exert more effective and sustained leadership with and without the black community on behalf of black children and families, both as personal role models and value instillers and as persistent advocates for National, State, and Locally funded policies...then all of our Mercedes and Halston frocks will not hide our essential failure as a generation of Black "Haves" who did not protect the Black future on our watch.~ Marian Wright Edelman
Don't be so busy getting that you get down in the mud of oppressing your own race.~Sac
I hope the quotes and reflections here will promote a dialogue long after the last sentence is read. I encourage you to be a voice of change Now, not an echo of political correctness and status-quo thinking.
Blessings to You, Next Generation Leader.
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