OPINION: Why we do what we do in celebrating Black history

Another February has come and gone. So many people are ready to get back to business as usual. For them, the celebration was something of a distraction. Many others wonder if the celebration was not just a waste of time, since it added nothing tangible to their lives.

What we would say, however, is that there is much to be had if and when we seriously write or tell the truths of Black history; when we teach it to others; when we learn its lessons; and when we use it for sound decision-making. As a matter of fact, the inherent value of such engagements with history is, to a great degree, what lifts humans above lower animals.

Writing and Telling Black History 

The duty of the Griot in ancient Africa was to preserve and tell the story of his/her people. It was their story and they wanted to ensure it was accurate in order to serve as a guide for the political, cultural, and intellectual development of the group. It was for that same reason Professor George Washington Williams authored the first comprehensive African American history for his people in America. The act of African Americans telling their own story guards against the spread of myths and stereotypes; avoids the group being misled politically and otherwise, by those with other motives. Black people writing their own story enables us to counteract the lies and misunderstandings that are spread as others, often their oppressors, write or re-write the African and African American story.

Teaching Black History

The duty of the teacher, whether it is at home, at school, in church, through the media, or elsewhere, is to share with his/her pupils what the sages and scholars have come to know about their group and its sojourn in human society and the environment in which they live. In a racist society and environment, they would learn how racism has manifest itself and how to counteract such manifestations; learn how to develop their potentials despite the ideology of White Supremacy; and indeed, they can become inspired and be encouraged to succeed by the stories of others who were similarly situated in history.

Learning Black History

In the same sense that Black history can and should be taught to people of all ages, it should and can be beneficially learned by people of all ages. In addition to what was enunciated above, it should be clear that there is much to be learned about the Black cultural heritage from Africa. There is much to be learned about discrimination. There is much to be learned about the struggles against lynchings, race riots, police violence, and other forms of racist terrorism. There is much to be learned about organizing for legal and political battle, for labor rights and economic uplift, and for other forms of racial engagement. There is indeed truth to the saying that we are never too old to learn. That is especially true when it comes to matters of racial surviving and thriving in America. 

Using Black History in Decision-Making 

Just as history in general can and should be used to make better decisions, Black history can be used. It is fairly common knowledge the leaders of what became apartheid South Africa studied the workings of America’s Jim Crow system in order to decide on how their system would operate. Similarly, Franklin Roosevelt and his allies studied the League of Nations in order to craft the United Nations. Using that same intellectual approach, Black organizers should be able to look at the strengths and weaknesses of the Ayers vs. Waller litigation in deciding how to deal with the allocations coming from the federal government for agricultural research and education as well as the threat to state appropriation cuts that would cripple, if not close, the state’s historically Black universities. Many observers of America’s racial history realized from the start what was meant by Trump’s campaign to “Make America Great Again.” As a result, they have been able to warn others and help them use history to assemble, step by step, measures to oppose and neutralize these descendants of the Red Shirts, the KKK, the Know-Nothings, and other White Nationalist White Supremacists.

In short and in truth, we iterate that those who are serious about Black history celebrations do what we do in order to assure that when it comes to African people in America, the full and true story is known by each generation, so that their potential is harnessed and developed for themselves, their group, and all people who desire and appreciate a humane and liberated society.