Black History Month 2019: WRAP-UP

Hey everyone, I don’t know if anyone read my Black History Month Series 2019 this year. I have only given a few people this blog address as I work out the kinks and gain enough confidence to share it. Even if you didn’t get a chance to read it in February, Black History is for any month, as you can learn about other groups’ history any time. And its great for black people to learn about black history, but its as important that others, especially Caucasian people, learn about a history of people who, as a group, have struggled more than they have.

(Rosa Parks arrested for her activism)

I intended to write about more about people, organizations, and concepts for Black History Month. But since I didn't get around to that I decided I would do a "wrap-up" and quickly mention some people and ideas I might have covered if I had had more time.
Also February, is the shortest month, which I have heard more than one black comedian point out. They gave us the shortest month. Thank you. And that is why its not completely my fault I didn't write as much as I wanted.
I think when talking about black history, we should talk about history and current people and issues as well. And I like talking about real versions of people from history, or even the present, that are not watered down.

People

1) Rosa Parks

(pic from deepsouthmagazine)

I assisted my mother, who is a teacher, with her class to a museum once. It must have been in February. In one of the rooms the class sat down and listened to a talk about Rosa Parks. The same old story was told, that is told of many black people in history. Literally white-washed, as to be palatable to white people who like to say they are open-minded, but are in actuality uncomfortable talking about race. (While writing this I was listening to random Ted Talks and this very subject came up for me (wow, Youtube, you are psychic today) so listen to it in this link about white-washing black history. The story is usually told in one easy to digest sentence. Ms. Parks was tired, so she decided not to give her seat to a white person. They told this story at the museum. My mom and I, in the back, knew the real story and were making faces to each other. This story takes away from Parks’ intelligence and work she had already been doing in the civil rights movement for many years. Parks’ action on the bus that day was not one dimensional, and it was not random. When googling Parks today there was even news about her.

2) James Baldwin

(pic from esquire)

Baldwin was a novelist who lead an interesting life. He lived from 1924-1987. For a short time, he was a minister, influenced by his step-father at the young age of 14 but was over it by 17. Later he was asked what [religion] he was, and he said, “Nothing. I’m a writer.” Fed up with the racism in the US he moved to Paris and became an expatriate, involved in the cultural radicalism in the Left Bank. Baldwin is said to be gay. Its recorded many places that he was attracted to men, but when researching gay and lesbian people in history, hardly any are said to be bisexual so we have to imagine bisexual erasure going on once in a while, not that I am making a suggestion about Baldwin’s exact sexual orientation. The three books I read of Baldwin’s were ‘Go Tell it On the Mountain’, which is semi-autobiographic, dealing with his step-father and the church. The second was ‘Giovanni’s Room,’ which is a love story between two men. And the last book I read of his that I finished less than a week ago is called ‘Another Country’ which deals with issues of race, homosexuality, bisexuality, relationships, sex, and friendship.

It also think Baldwin used New York City, or at least parts of it, as a character (as a writer I love “place as character”; a thing I have done). I think Baldwin is a great writer and enjoy him. He also was socially and politically active.

(pic from quotesgram)



3) Tracee Ellis Ross

(pic from thecoli.com)

Ross is one of the stars of the ABC award-winning sit-com black-ish , that dares to talk about some real issues in black culture that I’m surprised they can on network TV. Check out Ross’ speeches for the Glamour Women of the Year Awards and Ted Talk. She is Diana Ross’ daughter. She is an activist for racial and gender issues, as well as other social justice issues.

(pic from deadline.com of actors from Black-ish)







4) Spike Lee

(pic from filmstage)

Lee is a film director, producer, writer, and actor. His production company, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, has produced over 35 films since 1983. The name 40 Acres and a Mule is an important issue in Black History, which you should read about in this link on 40 Acres and a Mule, also called Reparations. Just this year he won an Academy Award for best adapted screenplay, a Student Academy Award, a BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, two Emmy Awards, two Peabody Awards, and the Cannes Grand Prix. His films, which are called ‘Spike Lee Joints’, deal with issues such as race relations, urban crime and poverty and other political issues. Some of his movies have been controversial; I think to get our attention so we can remember important issues. For instance I’ll mention his movie Bamboozled which is a movie that had enough power to stay with me many years later.

(pic from imdb) The movie is actually disturbing from an historical perspective and is referred to as a satirical comedy-drama. The topic is an issue that is not talked that often, which is Blackface. The movie was considered a box office flop, but the imagery stayed with me. And if that was a flop you can imagine the impact of his other movies.

Subcultures

1) BLACK VEGANS

I didn’t know that there were many black people becoming vegan, much less, black vegan communities until probably about a year ago. I can’t remember what exactly alerted me as to this phenomenon, but it could have been the book Sistah Vegan by Dr. Amie Breeze Harper.

I found it accidently on Amazon, and since it was the holidays, I bought it for my sister, who likes to practice healthy eating. And like most non-fiction books I buy for people, I read some of it first. Its an anthology written intelligently and is about black vegan women, how they became vegan, and different concepts like comparing and analyzing different oppressions, including, race, gender, class, animal rights, and more. And what is often common, not just for black women vegans, but other black vegans as well, are the issues of not feeling included in the vegan community as much and having people in the black community not understand them. These and many other issues are some of the main reasons for having a black vegan community, that talks about issues that may not apply to the white community such as a disproportionate number of the black population is in poverty, or at least underpaid; many black people living in food deserts, many black people think it’s expensive to be vegan, and how to find products specific to black people, such as hair care products, that don’t test on animals and are also vegan. My sister read the book a little, but I should be honest, its probably more what I wanted in a book more than she did, so I’m borrowing it from her a for a little.

The author, Dr. Harper, who is the most famous black intersectional scholars, so it makes sense these issues are addressed in this book she edits. She is the first person listed in an article on the website Striving Systems: Radical Vegan Perspectives on Total Liberation, entitled #BlackVegansRock: 100 Black Vegans to Check Out.


A podcast that I liked and I listened to the majority of one show and good portions of two other shows to get a feel for it was a podcast that has a simple and easy name to remember: ‘Brown Vegan’ .

(pic from stitcher.com)

The host is a young woman named Monique. She has guests on and talks about various issues of being a vegan. Do you eat before, after, bring your own food, or take your host up on offered accommodation to your diet if you attend a dinner party? How you’ll talk to people about being a vegan, but you don’t want to argue. Most vegans simply want to quietly eat their food in peace, unlike the stereotype that vegans are always preaching to people. For me personally, I have had many people harass me for being vegetarian or vegan (whatever I am then) simply for that reason, and no other. Its usually big men picking a fight with little me. Like I mentioned being in the vegan or black communities and support or lack of support or understanding is an issue mentioned. There is the issue of are you a vegan for the animals, health, environment or some combination of the three major reasons.
Most vegans would agree that as long as you do it, that’s your business and it doesn’t matter. The conversation on the show talks about serious issues at times, but is light, also talking about lighter issues like the host and guest are curious about what the other eats regularly because vegans, like anyone else, like new ideas.

So far I think at least one of the guests was a life coach and one was a chef. Wellness, from physical to mental, are things talked about on the show. Also, one last issue is that while many black people think being vegan is a white thing and more expensive, its only specialty items that are more expensive. Most vegan items are actually cheaper than meat, and dairy. And if the meat, dairy, and egg industry didn’t get subsidies (corporate welfare), not being a vegan would be even more expensive. (I can explain more about this in a future blog or you can look it up).

I found two black vegan cookbooks, that I can’t endorse, because I haven’t read them, but they look decent.
The first is Afro-Vegan by Bryant Terry

And the second one seems to be a weight loss book. You can lose weight with a vegan diet, but it’s a myth that everyone will. I’ve gained on a vegan diet. The book is called By Any Greens Necessary: A Revolutionary Guide for Black Women Who Want to Eat Great, Get Healthy, Lose Weight, and Look Phat by Tracye Lynn McQuirter MPH



2) BLACK NERDS

More and more there's been a building community of Blerds. (Looks like spellcheck isn’t taking that word yet. It will someday). Black+Nerd= Blerd. People often get the words and “nerd” and “geek” mixed up. Here are two working definitions of each to help you:

GEEK - An enthusiast of a particular topic or field. Geeks are “collection” oriented, gathering facts and mementos related to their subject of interest. They are obsessed with the newest, coolest, trendiest things that their subject has to offer.
NERD - A studious intellectual, although again of a particular topic or field. Nerds are “achievement” oriented, and focus their efforts on acquiring knowledge and skill over trivia and memorabilia.

(pic from taglabs.com)

When I search for “nerd”, or even “blerd” I more often find the meaning of geek. So, when presenting this I will show examples of nerds and geeks who are black and use the term blerd to mean a black nerd or black geek. (I think I had to make a point of that because I am more of a blerd/nerd, and don’t want people to think I am a geek). Blerdcon, which seems to be like Comic-con, but smaller, probably and has a specific focus on diversity in a subculture that is mainly white boys and men.

(pic from diningwithdana.net)

From the website, “Blerdcon celebrates our connection with LGBTQ, the disabled, POCs [people of Color] and the international community! All are welcome to partake in the experience as we are an open community who love all the same nerddom”. Blerdcon 2019 is in July in Virginia this year. Refer to the link for more info.


For women and girls who are nerds Black Girl Nerds seems like a site to check out.


If you are a science and, particularly space and astrophysics nerd check out Neal deGrasse Tyson, who is a black astrophysicist.

(pic from 6sqft.com)
He has TV shows, specials, books, and has made at least one cameo on the Big Bang Theory. I’m not a science nerd. I’m not good at science or math, but I was telling my partner the other day, don’t you think Neal deGrasse Tyson is kinda cool. After this statement I realized I am at least some kind of nerd, cuz "cool" people wouldn't probably say that.



And if you are a book blerd then here are two lists of books to read by and about black people: list 1 and list 2.

(a decent list, but probably stay away from the Colin Powell and Condoleezza books, and pay more attention to Cornel West, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Alice Walker (or fiction) for non-fiction.

While Powell and Rice have valid stories in the black pantheon, and could be discriminated against as much as any black person, they come from a political party that has consistently not supported black people).


And its always great to have to books around for children that teach about black people, or being proud to be a black or brown person, to instill a sense of self-esteem, like I am collecting for my daughter.

Just a couple of my books.

Issues That Do/Have Affected Me Personally

1) Growing up as a biracial or black girl living under white beauty standards. I have adopted a black daughter and didn’t know what to do with her hair so I went to a class.

The instructor played an old video of Whopie Goldberg talking about hair and she mentioned either she or someone she knew wore tights on their head so they would have long hair like a white girl.
I almost laughed (the kind of laugh with a cry behind it). My sister and I used to do that all the time.
(I took my sister out of the picture because I didn't ask permission, but you can see she's there).
Maybe we did it because it was just fun. I hope that was it. I feel there are wider examples of beauty in skin tone, body type and other things, and hope its even better when my 2-year-old daughter is older. But there is still a general white beauty standard.

2) Interracial relationships. I grew up in one, am in one, and often dated interracially. One interesting thing is, even though I'm half black and half white, most people would consider me to be in an interracial relationship with a white person, but not with a black person. A family with the same color of people is weird to me. The movie called Loving

and the case Loving v. Virginia that went to the Supreme Court in 1967 which deals with miscegenation, which is the mixing of races through marriage.

3) My racist experiences & more personal stories- And I would like to write more about my experiences as a girl and a woman, something I hadn’t thought of as a black person. And I admit, part of that might be because I am half black and grew up around more white people. But I’ve had the odd- it seems like people are watching me more in a store, people thinking it’s a complement to say that I don’t “talk” or “act black”. And apparently I’m articulate. But white people, its common for racists to be surprised that black people are articulate, so even though you might not mean it that way, be careful with what you say. Then of course there are all the times we might be discriminated against, but we can’t prove it.

But the most racist think I experienced was when I was about 16 or 17 and my boyfriend had to break-up with me because of the color of my skin. The break-up hurt, but the racism hurt so much more. I think its good to get children ready for this. I wasn’t ready. I want to get my daughter ready for it. But I also don't because its sick.

(pic from cambridgenetwork.co.uk)

Other Issues

1) Mass incarceration. Quite racist and classist.

2) How women are still considered as "other" in the black community. The community has a chance to not model itself after the dominant culture.

2) Police brutality and race (touched on in Black Lives Matter post), but also the fear of the police black people have, and the talk black parents have to give their children about dealing with the police to keep them safe, that white parents don’t have to do, often don’t know happens, and don’t have to live their lives with that mentality that stems from being considered lesser-than in a society.

3) DON’T YOU DARE SAY THE PHRASE “POST RACIAL” OR “POST RACIST”! The legacy of slavery is unfortunately alive and very well (thanks for a resurgence Trump). It’s just like when people say “post-feminism”. Some people seriously need to learn the meaning of “POST”!

(pic from snopes.com)

4) How Trump’s America has brought race relations backwards- and how all of us (of any race) who are NOT racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, classist, or only accept Christians, only accept Jews when they are from Israel, think humans have no impact on the environment and believe we are better than everyone else; this is chaotic hateful shit-show and we need to stand together! There are more of us! He can Tweet all he wants, but he lost the popular (real numbers of people) vote, so he can get over it.

(pic from thoughtco)

"I bet you make a great wife. But just a great wife. Not a businesswoman and a wife — that doesn’t exist, obviously".

- Trump

Here is an article that lists 13 Examples of Donald Trump Being Racist. That little-handed toddler (sorry to offend toddlers, because mine has much more compassion in her pinky finger than Trump has in has in his big gross body). He invented the phrase “fake news” so he could tell lies that would have made Pinocchio’s nose reach from D.C. to Russia.

(pic from pinterest.co.uk)

I just learned what the 25th amendment was the other week. IMPEACHMENT! I’d never been so happy to learn about an amendment in my life. Yes, of course many have affected me personally (people need to seriously learn about history and the people who fought for their rights. I mean literally, like protesting and getting beat in the streets of this country and asking directly for change to unjust laws). Mr. Orange-Skin-Comb-Over has turned so many of our allies against us and is getting “scientists” now, to prove the environment is fine and he believes that the claim of climate change caused by humans is costly nonsense.

"This very expensive GLOBAL WARMING bullshit has got to stop. Our planet is freezing, record low temps,and our GW scientists are stuck in ice."

-Trump

(pic from cnn.com)

Hate crimes are up. All groups of people. Even amongst Jewish people, who he says he likes. He’s had Neo-Nazis in his cabinet and defended Neo-Nazis and white supremacists in Charlottesville. All of this makes me mad and hurts me personally. What has hurts me the most I think, and something I have cried about, is taking the people's children away from them, who are coming from the southern border. And now saying they aren’t sure if they can place all the children back with their parents. Its too complicated. That’s purposely giving these parents and those poor babies/children PTSD. There is no way I could go on about all of his offenses. And what does this this have to do with black people, black history? EVERYTHING. His election, the people who elected him, and the people who continue to follow him when he eggs them on to terrible violent behavior, but stands back from responsibility, have taken us backwards. Obama took us forward a little. Only a tiny bit, partially because he was black.

(pic by zazzle.com)

It doesn’t matter what color you are to fight for other people’s rights. This is political, and like you will learn in my Women’s History Series in the month of March, "the personal is political". And like the famous quote, "if your aren’t outraged you aren’t paying attention.” So Mr. Fake-tan-white-racoon-eyes, and what he does should be offensive to you. And in this context, towards black people.



So what’s all this name calling on my part, you may ask? Bad journalism? I never said any of it was good, but that's another issue. Its not mature and below the belt one might argue.

"I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything… Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything".

-Trump

But what’s literally below the belt is saying you just grab any woman by the pussy, condoning this behavior, simply looking over it, and voting for him (unless you have asked for forgiveness for yours transgressions for voting that way). I have written these little insults, “below the belt” on purpose, to show the maturity we are dealing with, the mentality that he comes with, and the vitriol his follows bring forth. And this now is a smooth transition to my next blog post, which will my first entry of my

Women’s History Month Series 2019.