History is not Black and White


As I write these thoughts, I realize that February has ostensibly become the cursory "celebration" of the contributions of Americans who happen to be black.  At best, knowledge of the legion of inventions and contributions by black scientists, astronauts, military generals, pilots, politicians, Fortune 500 CEOs, musicians, civil rights activists, engineers, doctors, entrepreneurs, attorneys, educators, inventors, writers and the perfunctory athletes and entertainers is a malingering subtext in the minds of the vast majority of Americans.  Ironically, a profound sense of sadness often accompanies this celebration of AMERICAN history because it has been relegated to the dust bins of cultural minutiae or trivia like the vast majority of programming that oozes from cable channels.

The narratives of people of color interwoven into the broader context of the jingoistic version of the shaping of this democracy are dissonant and incongruent with the goose-bumpey versions accompanied with a crescendoing rendition of "America the Beautiful" in the background.  Our place in the American tapestry from 1619 to 1865 soils the pages of the first primers issued to students with the indelible stain, stench and bastardization of the truths held to be self evident.  The Great Sin that irrefutably served as the de facto economic engine to usher in the Industrial Revolution and elevate the fledgling 13 colonies into a global economic power is an inextricable part of the history of black folks whether they choose to be identified as African American or not.

The zeitgeist that germinated the seeds of Trumpism finds the unpacking of this dolorous, multi-century chapter of moral depravity, ambiguity, ambivalence and impropriety unpalatable.  What we are essentially encouraged to do is engage in revisionist renderings of the antebellum South and re-purpose chattel slavery as indentured servitude gone wrong.  The arrested development of the Diaspora, the socioeconomic disparity and the endemic challenges seemingly domiciled within the communities formed as derivatives of Jim Crow, gerrymandering, and redlining are all fake news or more derisively a perennial playing of the race card to elevate the victim culture to an existential state of being.

In the state of Florida, there is a statutory requirement that Black History be taught as part of the schools' history courses.  In the month of February, my 10th grader's school opts to teach on the Jewish Holocaust- a popular theme because it is not a domestic tragedy.  The Native American holocaust ( 10-15 million Native Americans that occupied their indigenous territories were reduced by 90 percent); a byproduct of encroachment, removal, war and disease doesn't manage to warrant a blurb and the 10 or more million Africans that died in the trans-Atlantic slave trade during the middle passage requires a forensic search on Google because it "ain't being taught in "nam" classroom in the capital city.

The largest group of forced immigrants in this country have been loyal, patriotic and incalculably contributory for the entirety of their existence in this great nation.  The great tragedy of the yet unrealized dream of Dr. Carter G. Woodson in instituting the promulgation of black history as more than a subtext of American history is that the vast majority of citizens will never fully understand how much black lives have mattered in the development of this nation's wealth and global stature.