I’m late, I’m blaming Colored People Time on account of the fact that it’s Black History Month (DRINK). I originally titled this ”I hate that liberal ass white folks feel so much guilt that they feel the need to pander to the ”Darkies” with bunk ass commercials and advertisements every February to assuage their white guilt even though they can’t be bothered to care about black folk the other 337 days of the year as if they remember black people besides MLK and Rosa Parks any damn way”, but that was too long.
Y’all just don’t know how much I HATE Black History Month.
BHM is like a cultural booty call, crawl into my mind for a moment, February constitutes 1am-1:45am (we get shafted 15 minutes) and THAT is when we matter. ”Hey baby, it’s February. What are you doing? Can I come over? Why don’t you throw on your Kente Cloth panties and let me talk to you about Malcolm X and the Tuskegee Airmen, Baby. Oh yeah and I’ll pretend to know the words to We Shall Overcome allllllll night long. What do you say? Ok, I’m on my way. BTW. We may be interrupted by Valentine’s Day you know she’s demanding, but I’m not gonna let her, the Super Bowl, Lincoln’s Birthday and President’s Day and this Leap Year distract me from reenacting the Civil Right’s Movement til dawn, well til 1:50 then I have to go because it’s Women’s History Month and well you know. I’m on my way. You turn on Roots and get warm for me”.
Black History Month may have been founded by an African American, but what it has become, particularly in the media, is some slow moving, sepia toned imagery, with a deep timbred black male voice saying “Corporation X is proud to Honor the Great Achievements of African Americans during Black History Month. UGH Please bite the empty air where my big, hairy balls would be if I had some. The same goes for print ads that break out the smiling black family or the kente cloth border or the abstract swirly black ladies (you know them when you see them). Look at the families with their Kool-Aid smiles and their fluffy Buttermilk Biscuits and their fried chicken, you know what those ads are missing? Sincere apologies for contributing to heart disease, diabetes and obesity in the black community. I don’t see anyone who looks like my fat ass auntie in not nan one of those photos. I’m not being mean, the woman needs a cane at 50-something cuz she is a human fishing bobber.
How she regularly falls out in church with those fake ass tears I know not. Let ME make a family advertisement, we’ll have an insulin needle, Grandma with a 2 by 4 chasing my Auntie with the bad wet and wavy weave, the holy ghost, Jesus and a big Pitcher of Kool-Aid because you have to sell the product.
Black History Month in schools is fine by me because, aside from MLK all day, every day, ALL UP IN YO FACE, it does force teachers to include an extra dose of black history into lesson plans. Also you’re almost sure to have a talent show where the brown children get to fulfill the stereotype of being rhythmically and vocally talented by nature. Me, I was, nay, I am an orator, so in 8th grade I got to read a Langston Hughes poem all by myself on the stage. Y’all don’t know nothin’ bout that Mama and that crystal stair.
As I’ve been listening to the radio and reading comments and asking for opinions on Twitter; Black History Month and my perceptions of its purpose, of its success, its reach are all dependent on my interests. My interests are general media, books, museums, politics, social services, etc. I’m not on Facebook engaging in debates, I don’t attend art shows or dance exhibits (unless guilted) so my perception of what happens during BHM is clearly influenced by the fact that I’m in libraries or at schools and not in cafes or theatres. Additionally, I’ve always considered BHM to be primarily for non-blacks, but as I meet more and more stupid black people I’m re-assessing that belief because ignorant people are stupid. In general I am concerned about the depiction and the representation of minorities in mainstream media, but during BHM I’m obsessive about it. I end up watching a lot of those little nuggets of consumable facts on the tail end of Tv shows. Don’t come at me with some ole bool about Old man Carver made peanut butter so he could perform open heart surgery with the first light bulb filament and his name was Rosa DuBois Marshall Luther King Jr.. That’s not history, that’s little fact nuggets and I feel like I’d rather nothing be said than for centuries of history, accomplishments and triumphs to be a 15 second sound bite.
In some ways I feel like this “nuggetization” for mass consumption contributes to the general belief that black Americans are less than, that we’re homogeneous, that we’re the stereotypical depictions on tv. If you only ever hear about the same 5 famous black people, rappers and black crime … I have a ton of issues with black representations in media. And I just think instead of 15 second sound bites we should be getting a Motown special spliced with a historical timeline or some Oprah special. AND not on PBS or CNN w/ Soledad “whoa, I had no idea she was black with the Latina and Irish names” O’Brien
Did Someone Say Nuggets and Black?
I ALSO feel like Black History Month should be a big ole party for black folks. “Hey you’re late”. “And? Leemelone, I’m black, it’s my month”. For Black History Month this year I’m going to try to be a little less cynical, but I’m still gonna play the MLK drinking game.
What is Black History Month to You?
How Will You Celebrate or Honor it?
Latest posts by GuestWriter (see all)
- What books will you never forget? - January 29, 2013
- Sports n Ish with Lurk - November 27, 2012
- The Final Debate – your thoughts? - October 23, 2012
Sits down all alone in the end zone, confused.
I get NOTHING out of BHM!! I have to agree with Cher-Bear its just lost all of its savor now that it has been overcooked like boiled cabbage by capitolistic marketism.
Just say no to nuggets!!!
I'm not bothered by or do i necessarily care for BHM one way or the other. But as a parent, I have to be very aware of what my kid's school is teaching him about his people during this month and to make sure i'm discussing things with him properly.
Last year for Black History month, Tristan came home crying after school. When he got into the car I had to ask him what happened and he just shook his head and said he didn't want to talk about it. So when we got home I sat him down and asked him again what happened and he cried and gave me a big hug and said that he learned that 'back in olden days' there were'peach people' who didn't like 'brown people' just because they were brown, and they used to be really mean to them.
He was hurt that there were people out there who didn't like people who looked liked him for no other reason than they were brown. He couldn't understand why people would be mean to another person like that and he then asked me if things like that still happened. He wanted me to do what all children want their parents to do, he wanted me to explain to him that things will be ok and that the world is a better place. That no one would look down or be mean to him for no other reason than the colour of his skin.
I couldn't like to him.
But what I did explain to him was how important and special he was to the world and that regardless if other people didn't like him, HE liked himself and his mommy and daddy love him no matter what.
…and if anyone ever tried to hurt him, not to worry.
because daddy would handle that ish.
So far during this BHM, he has understood the concepts a little better, but at 7, i'm not expecting him to understand the complexities of it all. Hell, he is just understanding the concept of RACE as it is.
but if the point of BHM is to make sure young black children get to learn of their importance in the world and how strong their people truly are, then I have no issue with any of it.
..but we explore Black history and self esteem building every day in our home.
I didn't read anything past this BHM is like a cultural booty call
but I will say this…
as a mother I've always made it a point to see what my son's schools were doing for the month…
I remember his middle school was doing nothing so I took it upon myself to contact the principal and ask him why he wasn't doing anything and if he planned to rectify that situation…
you can call it what you want but it is our month and it is always an opportunity to learn, teach or whatever…you don't need to force people or brow beat them about it but it is an opportunity … *shrugs*
As a parent I just can't sit here and "dog it out" just because that's probably the "in thing" to do these days…I have to find a way to make good of it…
Now that my son is grown and considering the type of work he does I will talk to him to see what he will do at work for the month…
Giiiirrrrllll, I loves me some Black History Month!!! It isn’t as profitable as it was for me back in NY where I used to do the lecture circuit, but I still love it. Truth be told, there are still a lot of folks who don’t get exposed to Black history the other 11 months of the year. Sometimes it’s because teachers don’t have time because they are chasing “No Child Left Behind” test scores. Sometimes it’s because the teachers were never taught, and thus don’t know enough to teach it. All they know is fact nuggets. For most Black folks, I think it’s because they don’t know how much they don’t know (that plus being too lazy/self-obsessed to want to know more).
You are right in that a lot of what Black History Month is, is White People learning about Black History. The truth is, folks don’t care about things that don’t directly affect them. For that reason, I look at BHM doing what MLK did. By putting his “show” on TV, MLK showed White America how cruelly some of their breathren would treat Black people when we “forgot our place”. That knowledge helped get legislation passed, and rights protected, that Black people did not have the power to get on their own. Black people already knew we were getting our heads bashed in when the cameras weren’t on, so we didn’t learn a lot about that from King; although we did benefit from having our efforts mobilized and having a central voice to articulate our issues. BMH gives a centralized voice to some of of our issues, victories, suffering, and culture. US history should have all contributing cultures and nations infused into our education, but until that happens, we have to rely on Black, Hispanic, Asian, Women’s, etc. months. The more people not like you know about you, the more then tend to respect you.
Having said all that, you absolutely gave me a whole lot new to think about. A lot!!! The Blacknugget vs. history thing is deep. And I have always been irritated by “Corporation X is proud to Honor the Great Achievements of African Americans during Black History Month”, but that was because I thought of it as condescending, not so much commercial. But I consider myself schooled. Ultimately, we are an immediate gratification country. Fast food, twitter, 4G internet on our phones, whatever we can get the most of in the shortest amount of time… quality be d@mned. If we tried to teach folks stuff for more than one month out of the years, they would probably become immune to it. But yeah, you made a very compelling argument. Thank you also for “Why don’t you throw on your Kente Cloth panties” and “Please bite the empty air where my big, hairy balls would be if I had some”. Took me a minute to get my focus back after those two lines.
Black History month reminds me we need more documentaries beyond the civil rights movement
and the people involved. I mean, what did free folks up north do? We went west in wagon trains,
what was it like? That's what I'm doing for black history month, finding out about all that stuff.
Black History Month?
Black History?
Last I checked, this was history, period.
Black history could not happen apart from American history. It's all part of the same story. As long as Black history exists, the whole story will never be told.
Oh, and can we get a federal holiday for Frederick Douglass?
I mean, I get the King holiday, but there would not have been a King if Douglass hadn't done a LOT of the heavy lifting first. In the same way that there would not have been a Special Theory of Relativity without the General Theory of Relativity, there would not have been a Civil Rights Act without the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, and Douglass' actions were just as substantial to those Amendments as were King's to the CRA…
My oldest sister is a teacher. We got together for lunch yesterday and she dropped a little story on me that pretty much sums up how I feel about BHM. She has some contacts at NASA and had them, all black engineers and scientists, come in to talk to her students. That day the superintendent of middle schools also happened to be visiting her school. He is also black. He was surprised and shocked that all these black people were actually engineers and scientists and they worked for NASA. *gasp*
So many blacks have drifted so far away from the each other I think BHM serves as a reminder that we are not alone. There are many black people who are just good people. The media doesn't talk about them much. BHM gives us a time to talk about them.
I celebrate my history by studying it, all year. I can't wait for February. I'm with Morgan Freeman on this one…
[youtube GeixtYS-P3s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeixtYS-P3s youtube]
I loved this post.
In the media, every aspect of non white life is still subject to the template of white privilege. Your fat ass auntie is too real even for BHM. I hate to get textbook college girl but as far as we've come we still are not afforded individuality in this nation. Singular persons are still seen as a merit or an infamous representation of our culture. We judge and our judged by this "universal" way of life that is nothing but an ingrained ideal that devalues minority traits.
"Singular persons are still seen as a merit or an infamous representation of our culture. We judge and our judged by this "universal" way of life that is nothing but an ingrained ideal that devalues minority traits. "
You hit the nail on the head with this one, YaYa!