As we celebrate Black History Month……there are many arguments for why a month isn’t enough; for why, as Morgan Freeman and others suggest, it is delegitimizing to relegate this vast history to 28 or 29 days. However, I disagree with these propositions for the same reason that commemorating the birth of Christ, Passover, Ramadan, etc, during a day, a week or a month annually, does not delegegitimize the creator, or some of our most deeply held beliefs about the author and finisher of our existence and that of the entire universe.
As we celebrate therefore, let us challenge ourselves to not simply watch replayed movies, spirituals and sermons. The injustices that have resulted in the order of things as they are globally-the net and far reaching product of expansionism, conquest , colonialism, stolen legacies, etc,- demands a committment, during this month especially, to set aside time to learn about the vast reaches of the historical poisons that have polluted the consciousness and the unconsciousness of the descendants of the oppressed and the oppressor, the slave and the slave master, the indentured laborer and the overseer/overlord, the master and the servant.
The current caste system, that is the global legacy of slavery and oppression to Black, Brown and Red peoples dictate that, just as we are encouraged to commemmorate religious holidays by studying, learning, reading the various stories-the human accounts of God, Jesus, Jehovah, Mohammed, Moses, and the other western offshoots of eastern religions; so too must we study, learn and read about the various forms and permutations that the assault- the dissecting, the perversion of the beauty and richness-of Black, Brown and Red peoples globally. We must spend this month especially gaining a increased knowledge of self, of legacy, of significance, of beauty and of self worth, that will never be undone. It is only this, that can assure, never gain and fire next time.
To all the women who massacre their hair follicles by the various processes that Black, Brown and Red peoples use to try to remove all sense of their ethnic beauty so as to pacify the subliminal self-hatred that has invaded their consciousness; awaken your consciousness with knowledge of the reason that you- young Black, Brown and Red people and children globally, hate your hair. You burn it, bleach it etc, in pursuit of the long, silky golden Caucasian standard of beauty, acceptability and being enough, created in slavery and perpetuated in post-slave societies globally.
There is beauty in all God’s creatures, yes, but the innocence and purity of that statement has been forever stolen by the vicious realities of expansionism, colonialism and conquest, where Black, Brown and Red peoples were relegated to being subhuman in furtherance of Gold, God, Glory.
We can never have enough days, months or time to commemorate the extent of the damage done-the loss, and still live productive lives. So let’s start with magnifying the significance of this month, and make each day this month, count as an undoing of the psychological slavery and the economic slavery that is the current global manifestation of the horrors of our global past.