Comments on BougieLand: How well do you know YOUR Black History? An A-HA! ...

I'm only waiting for the (dreaded) day when so...

2010-09-15T19:49:04.932-05:00

I'm only waiting for the (dreaded) day when some female rapper decides to use it as her stage name....

=[

Having been around for awhile...I was disappointe...

2010-09-15T19:48:55.415-05:00

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!

BTW, according to stats 518 people took this quiz ...

2010-09-15T19:48:55.081-05:00

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.

I read somewhere that a lot of people think it sho...

2010-09-15T19:48:54.711-05:00

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.

But there is no such thing as Black History - It&#...

2010-09-15T19:48:53.713-05:00

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.

Thanks for writing this. I hoodwinked Ms. Chele in...

2010-09-15T19:48:53.341-05:00

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.

What in sam hell... See, and that's the other...

2010-09-15T19:48:52.944-05:00

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.

BTW, I teach this stuff and I only got 1 out of 8 ...

2010-09-15T19:48:52.592-05:00

BTW, I teach this stuff and I only got 1 out of 8 right...

Yep, I teach these kids every day. Today I had one...

2010-09-15T19:48:52.259-05:00

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

when i taught fourth grade, i had a little one arg...

2010-09-15T19:48:51.878-05:00

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.

I failed MISERABLY BOOO ME

2010-09-15T19:48:51.558-05:00

I failed MISERABLY BOOO ME

Even worse is the fact that a lot of these kids th...

2010-09-15T19:48:51.233-05:00

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...

Chele - you had it for an hour, I have it all year...

2010-09-15T19:48:48.167-05:00

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.

I'm laughing (but sad) that they thought Sojou...

2010-09-15T19:48:47.702-05:00

I'm laughing (but sad) that they thought Sojourner Truth was a rapper. Wow.

The downside to "successful" desegregati...

2010-09-15T19:48:47.196-05:00

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)?

LOL! Believe me, I had to look most of this up bef...

2010-09-15T19:48:46.750-05:00

LOL! Believe me, I had to look most of this up before putting together the quiz.

Okay, I failed the test. And I agree - there is no...

2010-09-15T19:48:46.388-05:00

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.

Great point! This is one the issues with so-called...

2010-09-15T19:48:46.076-05:00

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.

Black History is World History

2010-09-15T19:28:31.710-05:00

Black History is World History

Oops, I forgot the link to the Bert Williams wiki ...

2010-03-08T09:53:01.540-06:00

Oops, I forgot the link to the Bert Williams wiki page, sorry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bert_Williams