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2/10/2004
It's Black History Month...I Forgot
You will never guess who I saw downtown tonight. Henry Louis Gates Jr. Probably doesn't ring a bell right? Well it wouldn't to most. Mr. Gates is a well-known African-American studies scholar, author, lecturer, and professor, and once worshipped by the likes of me. I even hunted him down once at a schmooze party and got him to write me a recommendation to Harvard. Apparently, he didn't have much influence over the board of admission. I got rejected. Yes, I was an unstoppable black studies fanatic my senior year of high school determined to go to Harvard and wrap myself in the so-called "genius" of Henry Gates and Cornel West; who, needs to comb his hair by the way. Even now I see, there was only partial truth in Mr. West's teachings. It just happened to be tastefully woven into lies. I was convinced I'd be a noted author in African-American studies one day. That may prove itself yet, however, probably contrary to how I would've imagined it in a contextual sense. My perspective has changed immensely over the last 4 years and I find myself believing less than 25% of what I believed then. Five years ago, I would have stopped the car in the middle of traffic to go greet Mr. Gates and tell him how much I loved his last book. This time, the urge didn't strike me. I'm thinking the reason he's in town has something to do with black history month which I actually forgot we were in.
So here we are thrust into what my mom calls "Black people work month". She's a lecturer and professor so you can imagine she's in high demand this month. The reality, is black history month is not much exciting in my book. It's a token. In general, I think we just need to do a better job of realizing and teaching multiculturalism in the US. year-round. On top of that, the black history that gets discussed doesn't interest me. This is mostly because it's had the crap beat out of it over the years. I find church history, great movements of God as it relates to my heritage more interesting. In fact, there is much African-American history that has yet to be openly discussed. I'm more interested in the spiritual roots of African-Americans; how many of us have somehow managed to be raised in church and ended up not even serving God as adults. Most people don't know that the Assemblies of God, commonly known as a predominately white denomination was the result of a split from the Church of God in Christ, a historically black denomination. Stuff like that facinates and befuddles me. I'm hungry to know what God has been doing all these years in history. In my opinion, this is the heritage we lack in general. How many of us (back, white or yellow) have actually had our grandparents sit down and tell us about how God's moved in our lineage? Well, depending on what generation you are (Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob), you may be the first to establish a Godly legacy in your family. However, it is commonly known in African-American circles that there is a rich history of Christianity in our past. Do we hear much about it? Not really. In fact, we make light of that fact a little too often. I wonder if this is one of the curses of this generation: lack of generational transfer. Oh how we need it.
posted by ambra at 2/10/2004 10:37:00 PM | link to this entry |
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