Make [Black] history

Before I tell you about the reality that there’s a trap, let me speak on Black History Month for just a moment.

Black History is World History. February in the US and Canada and November in the UK were designated special because the writing and teaching of Black history were sparse. Dr. Carter G. Woodson (who you may know as the author of The Mis-Education of the Negro — an essential read in my opinion) started Negro History Week in 1926 and in 1976, with the Civil Rights Movement in between those years, it was designated for the month of February in the US in commemoration of the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. Black history is all of our histories. It would be advantageous if you learned it because it has impacted everyone in the world, and as you are reading these words, that means you, too. . .

Back to my main topic. . .

There’s a trap. And it’s not the one that T.I. has created an empire rapping about. It is more insidious, if you can believe it — and doesn’t come with a David Banner beat.

It is when after experiencing repression, oppression, or humiliation, we slip into a space of somehow thinking — “this is how it is.” We retreat inside of the piercing parameters of narrow-minded acts of inhumanity — we abandon possibility.

Then, in a vulnerable and reactive state, we start the blame game. We blame “Them,” and if no one in a powerful and influential position finds us “right,” we start to blame ourselves for the subsequent suffering.