Happy Black History Month, even though it is celebrated during the shortest month of the year. The contributions of African-Americans to America are immeasurable. However, he gains of African-Americans in America are clearly measurable, and the depths of these gains pale in comparison to any other group in America, even after 400 years.
It was August 1691when the first twenty Africans were brought to this country in James Town, Virginia. You would think that after all of this time, hatred for the powerful dark-skinned, and brilliant sisters and brothers in America would’ve been eradicated by now. But unfortunately, not only has hatred for African-Americans not been eradicated, in many cases, it has been exacerbated in various forms that are legally acceptable. But no matter what, in the midst of and the face of the continued hatred toward African-Americans in America, they have persevered and continue to show love in the face of hatred.
It isn’t by chance that Black History Month is recognized during the same month as the month of love, which culminates with Valentine’s Day. No matter how beaten down, how discriminated against, how many African-American boys are murdered by white police officers without consequences, no matter how many African-American women are disrespected by whites, no matter how many African-American neighborhoods are taken over through gentrification, and no matter how many African-American children are under educated or not educated at all, through their resiliency, African-Americans still manage to show love, especially to those who have harmed them and continue to harm them.
Although resiliency with love is an admirable attribute for African-Americans as a whole, based on the vestiges of slavery, as well as the psychological impact of the teachings of self-hatred, many of them find it easier to forgive and love others who are less like themselves, as well as those who cannot identify with their four hundred year journey in America. The system is set up to foster divisiveness within African-American communities, further fostering in group haves and have nots, many times allowing African-Americans to treat others like themselves, the same way Whites have treated all African-Americans. Those who engage in self-hatred are more likely to hate those who look like them and can identify with them. To see the reflection of their own economic, physical, emotional, social, and spiritual pain and deprivation in the faces of their African-American sisters and brothers is often difficult for them to deal with. Hence, the hatred for themselves is then projected onto those who bare their reflections, making it difficult for them to love their reflections, because they hate their own pain.
The mainframe of the American White society is still shaking its head and wondering how such a group of people as African-Americans, who have been pawned, sold, raped, castigated, castrated, hung, assassinated, discriminated against, and stolen from are still able to stand, bouncing back from each and every act of hatred, designed to lead to their demise. However, for many African-Americans who are consciously aware of their history and their heritage, who accept themselves, as well as their history and their heritage, find it easy to practice self-love, and love for their people. Because they are conscious, they accept themselves, love themselves, and they are not afraid of publicly being themselves, allowing them to accept those who look like them and are reflections of themselves in their mirrors of economic, physical, emotional, psychological, and other forms of pain.
As African-Americans, it is imperative that you know and understand your history. It is further important that you teach your children your history and their history without denying it, decrying it, or running away from it. It is also even more so important that as African-Americans, you do not allow others who are not like you, those who have no knowledge of and have not participated FULLY in your journey, to tell your story or write your history. When you fully accept yourself, your history, and your heritage, you will much more readily accept the history and the heritage of those who look like you. A people without a history and a past are not fully the people God put them here to be.
It is also important for African-Americans to remember the struggle experienced by ALL African-Americans, even those who seem to have somehow escaped the economic deprivation placed on the African-American race as a whole in America, recognizing that until ALL African-Americans are free, none of them are truly free! The freedom to be is the freedom to love. Love is the basis and the base for you to forgive yourself, allowing you to forgive others who look like you, but have not harmed you, but their hated status is more related to their existence than it is to their behaviors, their crimes or their faults. In any case, there is never a reason or a rationale for hate.
As African-Americans or any other groups of people, no matter how much you’ve been hated, no matter how much you are hated, hate is never an option. However, you still have the option to continue down your path of self-love, family love, and African-American love. Until you experience all of these forms of love, the love you espouse to those who have harmed you is not truly a love of freedom, but a love to belong and to be accepted. Love is acceptance and respect, first for self, family, and your history and heritage. Love is allowing yourself as an African-American, to have conversations about your past and your present with those who look like you, in preparation for your future. Love is confronting your denial of self, accepting your strength and your resiliency of having beat many odds, and going against the grain of the set up by America’s White society.
No matter who you are and where you are economically as an African-American, until you use your resilience to reach back and reach down to pull up other African-Americans who seem to be caught in the struggle, as well as those young African-Americans who have no understanding of the struggle, you are a part of the hate game. You are doing exactly what the teachers of hate have taught you, starting from the plantation. You don’t have to run anymore; you are free to be, you are free to be you. It is time for you to use your resilience and your love to free others, not just during Black History month, the month of February, or on Valentine’s Day, but three hundred and sixty-five days of the year! Let your resilience and your love continue to lead you and guide you, fighting against hate, not promoting hate, and by engaging in anti-hate campaigns to cripple and stop the haters!
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