“WHEN THE TWO SIDES MEET TO AGREE RATHER THAN DEBATE, PROGRESS IS IN PROCESS..”  author Kimberly Davis

BLACK HISTORY MONTH

IT’S the shortest month of the year.  However, we must celebrate it to the fullest.  It’s not about the quantity of days but the quality of usage.  The month could be 31 days long but if the days are wasted, it really doesn’t matter. It’s about being Black 365 and telling our stories which are diverse.  It’s about understanding, the language that is used to describe us and divide us; it’s about understanding and respecting our ancestors enough to carry on the fight! It’s about embracing our own diversity among us as people of color in the struggle.   Whether you are accomplished or considered successful or socially accepted to the poorest living in the ghetto of the projects, it’s about ensuring that each of us have equal opportunities and equal rights.

It’s important that regardless of what I do, I live to be held accountable or rewarded depending on my action.  It’s about giving me respect privately and publicly.  It’s about not limiting my success by how you treat me or the opportunities exposed to me.  When it is all said and done, my decisions on where I live should not limit my access to the American Dream, my forefathers died hoping I would have.

My Christianity doesn’t make me ignorant, it makes me informed and free to feel my feelings yet within know and hope for a better way of life.  It doesn’t mean that I have to enjoy or even lie down while others walk on me, but it ensures that when I’m angry, I’m not alone!

Having relationships with those outside my race doesn’t mean I’ve sold out on my people, it just means I’ve learned to love but that love doesn’t make me blind to injustice.

Saying #Blacklivesmatter means just what it says and in no way says that blue lives or other lives do not matter.  It means that their life shouldn’t have more value than my own!  Instead of being tried in the court of the streets or reputation that the media decides to portray, it means despite my past and more specifically my color the Constitution should represent me and not against me!  If I protest, I shouldn’t be labeled as a beast or have my patriotism questioned.  America was built on protest.  When you tell me I’m disrespectful to one group but ignore the disrespect to my community how do you think I feel?  When you ignore my pain but expect me to feel and be helpful during your time of pain, it’s quite disingenuous of you.

Stop expecting love and forgiveness from me when you give me hate consistently.  Do not label me as a ‘thug’ or call my marches, riots when you watch other marches turn violent and call it their right!  Stop having me to fight for justice when you give it freely to others as part of their birth right!

Black history month is an American Thing! It’s an American Culture, It’s something America has to stop and take notice of as well as celebrate!  To say, we no longer see color is not only a lie but the worse “non-compliment ever!”  The implications are that to celebrate me, you have to not see me as I am?!  Black history must be told and retold, the stories must be past told, explained until we as Black people understand and appreciate that every part of our past makes us the awesome people we are if we learn and grow from the pains of our past!

Black history allows us to celebrate the history in the making acknowledging the achievements of the present history makers defying all odds.

Black history is only confined to one month if you allow it to be so.  Often we complain about what others give to us instead of building on what has been given.  If someone gives it then; he, or she has the power to take it away, however, if you build it, it can not be stripped away.