Black History Month has always been a source of panic for me. For some reason, I'm always worried that I'm not doing enough or that I'll miss something great on TV or in theatre. I always get a little irritated that it's the shortest month of the year when there is SO much to cover. This year, I decided to do a little bit more. It was an eye-opening experience. As a favor to a church friend of mine, I agreed to host an online chat session about Black History Month for about 25 of the church youths (ages 14 – 18). After an hour and a half of shock and dismay, let me just say… I weep for the future. And yet, I feel certain that every single generation has felt this way about "the kids" coming up behind them. But this time… they may be right. Witness if you will, some of the gems mined from this session.
I opened with a soft question: What does Black History Month mean to you? Now I had some okay answers but to a person, they all mentioned Martin Luther King. A little narrow in scope, so I decided to ask a follow up question – do you think Black History in America begins with MLK? Most enlightening answer: The history that impacts us began with MLK. This let me know that beyond Malcolm and Martin, these kids were not that informed. So I delved a little deeper: Who can tell me (without Googling) who was Marcus Garvey? Dead silence. Sojourner Truth? "A rapper, right?" Le Huge Sigh. I cried a little inside and then embedded these links about each person:
Immediately, they had questions about what I had sent and wondered why they didn't know more about people like this. The majority of their questions revolved around the fact that they no longer felt that slavery had a huge impact on their lives. In fact, they felt that with the election of Obama, the biggest battle had been won and they were going to sit back and enjoy what one of them called "the new black privilege". <- - Definitely a topic for another post.
So I asked: Who can name a war or battle that contributed to the freedoms you enjoy today? Among many scary answers came: The East Coast/West Coast Rap Battle of the 90s. Instead of scoffing at the child I asked if he knew where the origin of rap was rooted. This boy said Bed-Stuy. I said no. Someone else said church. I said okay and where did those church songs and "call-and-response" cadences come from? Finally someone said slavery and spirituals. They all became highly amused at the thought of slaves in the cotton field rapping. "What kind of tags were they poppin' in the fields? Any bling in the 1800s?" Moving on, I explained that rap was a form of communicating social conditions as were the old field spirituals. That at least registered some interest and they had a lot of questions about the influence of music on Black culture from then to now. I sent them this overview.
Finally, thinking I had achieved a breakthrough, I asked the following questions: What was the Harlem Renaissance, who started the Underground Railroad, who was Mildred Loving, why did Malcolm claim the last name X? A few come up with Harriet Tubman but that was about it. At this time, I was exhausted and told them to look the rest up. I ended by giving a little quiz (which I've embedded below for your good times).
Granted, I wasn't exactly hip deep in knowledge of African-American History myself at 15. But Eyes on the Prize and documentaries like it were required watching in my home. BougieDad spent more hours than I care to think about pontificating on all things blackilicious from the Congo to Calypso music to Stokely Carmichael.
All of this to say, grab up the young 'uns around you and put something other than rap lyrics in their heads. I beg of you. Black History Month should be a celebration of all the rich heritage and culture in each aspect of African-American life. Let's do our part to make sure it's more than just a month of great movies and tribute videos. Reach one, teach one. Join me in passing along knowledge, won't you?
Any stories about Black History Month to share? Comments? Thoughts?
20 comments:
Oops, I forgot the link to the Bert Williams wiki page, sorry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bert_Williams
Black History is World History
Great point! This is one the issues with so-called "progress" less and less people think that the past has any impact on them. In my thinking, as long we are still saying "the first Black" this and that in 2010, we still have a long way to go.
Okay, I failed the test. And I agree - there is not enough focus on Black History in the "white-washed" schools so many of us "upwardly mobile" types attend and send our kids to. It's up to us to pass along knowledge. Great reminder Chele. And thanks for the quiz. I feel sufficiently stupid now.
LOL! Believe me, I had to look most of this up before putting together the quiz.
The downside to "successful" desegregation (not to be confused with integration, which has not been completely successful and is NOT seen everywhere) has been that white people see it as an opportunity to stop making a big deal out of Black History.
Nobody "sees" color anymore so no one "sees" the importance of teaching all kids, but especially black kids, their history. Especially the history that directly impacts them.
For example, the prestigious private high school I graduated from in 2004, my older cousin graduated from in 1985. He was one of the FIRST black students (he and another black student graduated together) to do so. My friends in high school were shocked to learn as much. To them, stuff like that had 196x attached to it, not 1985.
I read an article about a high school in my hometown that played a significant role in the local civil rights' movement. In the 60s, the school was predominantly white; if you told current students that, they would laugh. The school is now majority black and has a very negative reputation in our city.
No one is teaching our kids these things because no one thinks it's important (yeah, we say we do, but outside of February, what are any of us doing to teach kids their history)?
I'm laughing (but sad) that they thought Sojourner Truth was a rapper. Wow.
Chele - you had it for an hour, I have it all year. At my church, I teach the "Heritage" class for teens once a week. At least you had some who knew who Harriet Tubman is. I had a kid ask me if she was the women that Aunt Jemima was based on.
Even worse is the fact that a lot of these kids think 1970 is ancient history so to them, MLK and Malcolm X are so long ago that they have to be reminded of the ones who came before that and before that and before that. It's only when they recognize that each generation has made a contribution to the next that they start to understand their responsibility... or at least I hope it works that way. Oh - and I flunked the test too...
I failed MISERABLY BOOO ME
when i taught fourth grade, i had a little one argue me down that martin luther king and harriet tubman freed the slaves. ummm, what? from that point on, everything we did had something to do with black history. they couldn't go to the bathroom without giving me a black history fact.
Yep, I teach these kids every day. Today I had one tell me that C.J. Walker was Jimmie Walker's mother O__o Let's call that a #blackhistory #fail
BTW, I teach this stuff and I only got 1 out of 8 right...
What in sam hell...
See, and that's the other thing. They don't know who Madame CJ Walker was, but they do know who Jimmie Walker is. Not that Jimmie Walker isn't worth knowing, but DANGIT... priorities, people.
Thanks for writing this. I hoodwinked Ms. Chele into doing the chat with the kids so she could share my pain. And I see she does. I knew she would highlight it and give all something to think about.
But there is no such thing as Black History - It's just History.
I'm taking my young cousins on a tour of African History and it's contribution to the world.
Hannibal Barca may not have been Black but Piye was.
George Washington Carver didn't invent peanut butter but he was a pioneer in biofuels.
I read somewhere that a lot of people think it should be called Black Heritage Month and feel that there is more basis in that.
BTW, according to stats 518 people took this quiz and no one got 100% correct. Over 78% of the people who took it got 2 correct only.
Having been around for awhile...I was disappointed to get 5/8 correct...no matter how much we know...it is only still the tip of the iceberg regarding the contributions those of the African diaspora have made to this world...*she sighs*...you ought to test more often to keep us on our toes!
I'm only waiting for the (dreaded) day when some female rapper decides to use it as her stage name....
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