God Bless MLK
I grew up in a predominantly "white" (I don’t know…whenever someone refers to a person as white I see a bunch of paste colored people LOL) neighborhood. I don’t imagine that this is a choice my parents made, it just happened. They didn’t seem to be the sort that screened neighborhoods or schools…they kind of fell into a housing situation with the first house they owned (someone in the family couldn’t afford the mortgage anymore so my father assumed it). It was more or less an accident. There was one African American girl in my entire school career from kindergarten through the eleventh grade and then she was only in the neighborhood for one year. I never really thought about it much until I saw my collection of earlier year books and I had no idea who this girl was. It stuck out. Not because she was African American but because my SENIOR year of high school was in a much different location. I had moved out of my biological father’s house to love with my biological mother for my final year of school before moving out on my own. SHE lived in a very diverse neighborhood. It was like living on a diet of Peek Freanes and then suddenly being given a one day all inclusive free for all pass to a German Bakery. FLAVUH!
I loved it.
After having been an oddball (not very popular book wormish imaginative sort with a free spirit and an "I could really care less what YOU wear it ain’t my BAG to follow the herd baaaaaahhhh." attitude.) I was just one fish among many and we swam as we wished. Goldfish, guppies, minnows, tetras, you name it. ALL SORTS. And I had a blast. I acted out, I partied, I danced and sang on street corners. I lived.
My wish for everyone is to experience that. To dig their teeth in and taste life in big bites. To savor everything that other cultures mixed in with yours in a hodge podge of life can bring you. Eat Thai food, wear a sari, put your hair in braids, sit in a lotus position, and celebrate Kwanzaa! My good Lord what we miss when we "stick to our own" as if our own are a BREED of people. I want to walk around and wear a t-shirt that states boldly "Not black, Not white, nor yellow or red…
HUMAN!"
‘Cause shit…who only opens the GREEN wrapped packages under the KwanzaChanuukah Tree? You open ALL of them ‘cause the wrapper aint the thing baby, it’s the CONTENTS.
May you have family of diverse ethnic background as well. This way you learn to live in and on and among kin and truly understand there are no differences that can not be celebrated. Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations - I read that somewhere and I mean it. I have two baby sisters. One a Heinz 57 of Russian, English, German, Scottish blah blah blah and one East Indian, African American, and Anglo. They are GORGEOUS women on the inside. Their wrappers are very different from mine (one is adopted and one shares a biological mother with me) but we are SISTERS regardless. We look nothing alike yet if you look deeper it’s hard to tell where one begins and the other ends.
To our dear departed Martin Luther King Jr. - May ALL your dreams come true as this one appears to be more and more every year. It started with the Little Rock Nine, Rosa Parks, and a few other souls who refused to be told "what they were"…and moved on to three little girls like my sisters and I. May the tide continue!
To the folks heading up "All Black Colleges" and "United Negro College Funds"…you have some thinking to do ‘cause if Anglos did the same you’d be all up in their grills…so long as you hold onto the idea that this stuff is needed because otherwise "your people" won’t get into college, the belief that there are differences will continue. Look around and see if "your people" aren’t fostering this sort of behavior by continuing to point out the "differences". Stop saying "It’s because he’s BLACK" and start asking if it’s because his grade point average didn’t make muster and that my friend has NOTHING to do with his or her color. African Americans study the same way Anglos do…by cracking the books. And no mere skin color will change that. We do things the same and I don’t know ANYONE who keeps tallies on their friends and families anymore. There are a lot more people who have no idea anymore what the "count" is on their coworkers and friends because it’s simply not noticed. THAT’S where YOU need to go.
And I’ll be there waiting for you to catch up to me and MLK baby.
In regards to your “All Black College” remark, it doesn’t surprise me one bit that you would say that “we” (as you may have figured, I’m African-American) have some thinking to do. It is mind boggling though for you to think (the thinking portion of your brain is highly underveloped) that “we” go to black colleges b/c we can’t get into any other colleges. ARE YOU SERIOUS?! I went to one of the top colleges, Howard Univeristy, in the nation (FYI…Historically Black Colleges and University) which happens to have a high percentage of African Americans. At registration I didn’t see a line of “Anglos” wrapped around the corner to sign up for an education. Maybe two or three but that was THEIR choice. HBCU’s accept entrance of all people but anglos CHOOSE not to attend b/c guess what, it’s mostly blacks that attend and they don’t feel they would be comfortable in that environment. HBCU’s were founded not only because at one time, AA’s weren’t allowed admission into “their” schools but also as a way for us to learn more about our culture. And you think there isn’t a need for this type of establishment anymore?! I would say that you’re crazy but it’s typical for MOST anglo’s to think this way so it isn’t suprising. Most AA’s have chosen to go to HBCU’s b/c of numerous reasons, one major one being acquiring a top-notch education where the color of your skin isn’t even an issue. It’s a place where we don’t have to worry about “Anglos” asking you if you’re at school on scholarship or because of affirmative action. We don’t have to constantly answer questions such as, “Did you live in the ghetto?” Do you ever stop to even think what it’s like to be a “person of color” living in this nation? (I hate that slogan but can’t think of a whiter, oops, I mean witty version) Oh yeah, I forgot… You must be in that group of people who say, “I don’t see color!” What “you people” (I use that phrase loosely) don’t seem to understand is that African-Americans don’t want to be the same. We don’t want to be “Anglo” when we say we want to be TREATED the same as everyone else. Our differences need to be pointed out so that they can become understood and accepted. It seems to me that you believe that if we started assimilating into the anglo culture and acted more like “everybody else”, then there wouldn’t be a problem. We love our differences…the way we talk, the sway in our hips, the dip in our stroll, the curl in our hair, even the soul in our food. So before you start to disect what’s “wrong with us” and why we are treated differently, you need to take a step back and wonder why there are differences in the first place and if those differences are such a bad thing. Oh, and please stop using Dr. Martin Luther King’s name in vain. He was a non-violent man but I’m pretty sure that he would smack you a good one!
THIS SESSION OF “BLACK 101″ HAS COME TO AN END. IF THERE ARE ANY QUESTIONS, SUGGESTIONS OR COMMENTS, FEEL FREE TO CONTACT ME AT aprillynnbryant@aol.com or READ “THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK” by W.E.B DuBouis
Comment by April — January 15, 2007 @ 8:47 pm