Black History Month has passed its prime
By Mario Bonas
Now hear me out. Before you categorize this as some op-ed that lambastes black people, calling for them to pull themselves up by their boots straps, endorsing victim blaming, punching down at the down trodden or as an outright embrace of far right conservatism please consider this a call for reason. I would like to invite readers to consider this a campaign to inspire the next phase in the evolution of the “race debate” that Black History Month tacitly stokes. BHM’s origins began modestly in America and grew from Negro History Week back in the 1920s before being presidentially endorsed in 1976. Many will defend its necessity as a time set aside to learn and bring awareness to how blacks have made their mark in global history. Despite all its academic merits the message BHM implicitly relays is that America’s past was constructed on racism and that racism is still woven throughout the fabric of the nation. The question BHM struggles to answer or forced us to ask ourselves is why blacks were and are the victims of hate and oppression? Until we can unilaterally answer those questions with objectivity and reassess the common themes, trends and ways of thinking that are common among black folks we will continue down this deleterious path that delays our advancement. Without exploring the depths of this topic its real usefulness is now up for debate. Black History month, as we know it, maybe inspirational in spirit but antithetical in practice.
One of my favorite artists who possesses one of the greatest music catalogs filled with potent lyrics, uttered his best verse that was never laid over a beat. American rapper Jay-Z, executive producer and entrepreneur responded to the Colin Kaepernick's protest with arguably his most important bars. He stated “You go outside and you protest and then the company or the individual says, ‘I hear you. What do we (blacks) do next?’” What we do next can not and must not be filled with the same rhetoric and mindset that has gotten us this far.
February 1st marks the commencement of Black History Month. Black History Month is a month of the year dedicated to celebrating achievements and accomplishments of people of African decent. It has been officially recognized by governments in Canada, the United States, Netherlands, Ireland and the United Kingdom. The spirit of this observance began in remembering important people and events that occurred in the history of the diaspora of African people. But I am moved to ask, are recognizing race specific accomplishments important? Many (blacks and whites) would suggest that it is. They endorse this mandate in an attempt to change the image of black people and correct the current state of a budding generation of black youth who are at risk. The goal, which is often conflated with persuading greater society of their worthiness, is to reverse the course of mis-education, the effects of stereotypes and stimulate self-esteem. Implemented as a tool to promote, honor and inspire its objective is to replace negative images of black people with those of successful individuals and groups of people and assist the aforementioned youth reach and maximize their own potential. Famous writer James Baldwin once said, “He who controls the image, controls the mind.”
It is well documented, the history of world wide oppression, from discrimination, forced labour, Jim Crow laws, disenfranchisement and apartheid imposed on people of African decent in the Americas and abroad. Since the dismantling of these institutions blacks have adopted a distorted view of the effects of their past since reaching the shores of the Americas, and understandably so. Glamorization of mafia culture that embodied crime and violence, as well as images that celebrate single parenthood, backward values, prison culture and many other social maladies that plague black communities have had an insidious affect, especially to black youth. These pathologies continue to give birth to demonstrations of apathy towards productive measures of achievement, anti-social behavior, a disregard for cultural dignity and in extreme cases a disregard for human life.
In this modern era of the #metoo movement, Black Lives Matter, woke-ness and general political over-correctness it is no surprise the Black History Month amasses growing solicitous support in its celebration. I accept that the intent of recognizing black excellence, with the shortest month of the year I might add, is to acknowledge the contributions that black people have made in fields pardon the pun other that music, fashion and athletics and provides a source of inspiration and knowledge of self to our youth. It is no doubt that historians have down-played or worse yet, omitted the records of black participation in meaningful disciplines like science, art, politics and literature and we can debate the reasons why. However, behind the banners, the public service announcements and empty speeches that prevalently accompany Black History Month the absence of the truth undermines its intended effect.
Much like church reinforces stories and lessons of the bible (proving the existence of god), Black History Month reignites the feelings of racial of injustice, reiterates the accounts of slavery and historical racial bias. It is no secret that Black History Month and its ceremonies attempt to re-brand the image of black people as not lazy and violent or exhibiting antisocial behavior by showcasing the accomplishments of exceptional individuals and groups who all have their African heritage in common. Too often the gap between the minority of successful blacks and those that lag behind within their racial groups, are blamed on the evils of past deeds and surreptitious societal structures. Here is where things tend to get complicated and the harmful nature of Black History Month makes its presence known.
Okay, let me digress. I am proud of my African heritage. However, as a youth and younger man Black History Month was received by me with mixed feelings. Learning about past black civilizations that existed from Babylon to Timbuktu cast doubt in my mind on the way mainstream scholars depicted blacks from antiquity to colonial times. Reading the works of authors like J.A. Rodgers, Dr. Ben Yousef Ben-Jochannan, Ivan Van Sertima, Francis Cress Welsing helped me foster a greater sense of pride in our history. At the same time I could not ignore how sentiments surrounding policies like Black History Month made me feel – less than and unfulfilled. While the mainstream intelligentsia promoted and endorsed the benefits of similar philosophies and implemented other dispensatory ideologies, I only felt more infantilized.
Despite the controversy this literary counterculture stirred and the accusations of promoting Black Supremacy they provided an alternative account of history that rescued the minds of blacks from a humiliating narrative. Yet still baked into the narrative was a defensiveness of our presumptive inhumanity that justified an identification with oppression and the impulse to protest all instances of it, and rightfully so. In spite of these mixed feelings I was satisfied for the moment, that what I consumed countered the ethos of intellectual weakness as a birth-right that justified the label of inferiority by well educated higher minds of their time. Over time in my quest for the truth, skepticism grew as one by one old beliefs fell under the lens of objective scrutiny. Still my humiliation reemerged. At the height of black militancy I felt most uncomfortable when leaders within my community demanded that white society fix the ills that afflicted black communities. In fear of being ostracized from my tribe I dared not question the widespread narrative about our plight as a people that has always laid the blame for our underdevelopment at the hands of white supremacy. I have often heard the anecdote that “there is nothing wrong with black people that ending white supremacy couldn’t fix”. Simply put it implied that we are the products of an oppressive history and that our flaws are to be attributed to the inherent evil of the white majority. This narrative was and still is supported through politics and left wing ideology, by academia, the media, the intelligentsia and even Hollywood. This in turn led to my internalization of these beliefs that blacks are not capable of being fully responsible for their own advancement and slavery, while tragic, became not only a setback but an excuse for the conditions and challenges we face today.
Look. I know how this all sounds. But maybe Jay-Z was right to ask the question, “What do we do next?” Glenn Loury tenured Professor of Economics at Harvard said “Time is limited. And where one focuses their time and resources matters!” So what do we do? For starters since we have the world’s attention during Black History Month perhaps examining our past under a more objective lens with a holistic approach will serve us more strategically in setting us in the right direction. For example the discussions that have confined slavery to blacks being forcibly held in bondage by whites are one of the ways that present agendas misrepresent our understanding of our history. If only we can come to recognize that slavery was an evil that permeated all humanity instead of the commonly held belief that it was narrowly localized to Africans and their descendants. How far that would go in removing the stigma against those aforementioned members who continue to wrestle psychologically with their own underdevelopment and widening disparities. Thomas Sowell wrote in Discrimination and Disparities, “European slaves [were] brought to the coast of North Africa by Barbary Coast pirates. These European slaves were more numerous than the African slaves brought to the United States and to the American colonies from which it was formed.” There are countless examples of people who have fallen behind at different times and later grew past their counterparts in terms of achievements. I can speak personally to East Indians who came from overseas and began their careers as indentured laborers in East Africa, Trinidad and Guyana. They later have progressed into small business owners and entrepreneurship while their offspring have now entered into the higher stations of commerce, politics and other lucrative professions. Sowell continues, “Among many appalling things about the past, it is hard to know which was the worst, since there are all too many candidates, from around the world."
The Black in Black History month denotes a study on the history of African people who are described as black. Yet a study of racial history so specific rarely emphasizes the fallacies within it. For instance racialization became an after-the-fact reason for justification of the enslavement of the people belonging to a specific region, namely West Africa. Other doctrines of false race science like Eugenics followed, and their design was intended to give those people engaged in the slave trade the pretext to secure their wealth and rationalize the means to which they satisfied their greed. However it is important to note that there was nothing inherently biological, social or psychological that made Africans more susceptible to enslavement. In other words Africans do not belong to a lower stock nor are they 3/5ths of a human or intellectually more suitable to be enslaved – an ideology that black people may have subconsciously internalized as a reason they fell victims to the muskets of their slave masters. In fact the word race used as a means of categorizing groups of people is a false distinction. A New York Times article entitled “Do Races differ? Not really, by Natalie Angier cited Dr. J. Craig Venter, head of the Celera Genomics Corporation, as saying ''Race is a social concept, not a scientific one,'' In the same article Dr. Harold P. Freeman, the chief executive, president and director of surgery said, “If you ask what percentage of your genes is reflected in your external appearance, the basis by which we talk about race, the answer seems to be in the range of .01 percent.'' While it may be suitable to label groups based on their geographical locations and the variables within them, these labels inform us more about different origins, migration patterns and culture.
I know what you are thinking. You’re thinking that I am a sympathizer and if I knew anything about being black I would know that blackness is a quality ascribed to our culture just as much or more than race and physical attributes do. Black History Month and curriculums like them are reluctant to examine the cultural roots that shed light on the differences in behavior and achievement. Blackness is not monolithic – meaning there are several subgroups under the label of black each with their own subcultures. Culture matters immensely and differences between them have an enormous impact on the choices they make, the values they promote and the disparities that exist between them. These observations while trite in nature maintain that culture dictates the widespread examples of discrepancies in achievement and performance all around us. For example blacks are more attracted to and more likely to succeed in careers which they perceive they are less likely to encounter overt prejudice and discrimination like athletics than in other lucrative careers. It is easy to measure their abilities by judging individual performances by way tabulating statistics like batting averages, speed, points per game, knock-outs and rushing yardages. In this arena where winning is the bottom-line for blacks the perception is sports offers them an opportunity to become wealthy where they have few other avenues to success. These choices are part of a culture prevalent in predominantly black urban American communities and this culture has a major influence on the choices they make.
So what do we do next? We can begin by loosening the correlations between Black History Month and slavery. While the causal effects of slavery don’t exist today, the psychological effects have sustained its durability. If nothing else, I hope that BHM encourages us to heal. I’m encouraged by the words of Jay-Z whose strategy while different to that of Colin Kaepernick has the same goal. Maybe, just maybe here is where we can do something different by engaging in dialogue responsibly and adopting a more refined sense of judgement. While activism and social progress must not cease, we should be mindful of relying on facts and not in conjecture when defining who we are and where we are going. Changing other people’s lives and promoting a less prosecutorial culture reliant on meaningful education, family centeredness and personal accountability is a more rewarding start.
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