Why Living Black History Matters
The Origin of Living Black History. So when we first started doing BHM events for The Wave, we were in year 2 and we knew we wanted to brand our month. Me and Greg agreed that BHM of course is about the past, but how could we honor the present, people who are creating Black history. We bounced ideas but all of them sounded a little dark, “I Am Black History” sounds like you just died or something and eventually we arrived at “Living Black History.” It was clean and speaks to the story we wanted to tell in honoring those who are living historic Black lives right now.
Life is fickle, so let’s live a little. We must live enthusiastically while we’re here. We are a generation of Black people different from our parents and grandparents, we can see their experience with extreme clarity. I didn’t do drugs as a kid because I saw what it did to my family in seeing my mother struggle with addiction. I wasn’t in love with the job market because I saw how mundane my father’s work life was. As an adult I’m confident in my values and decision making, so I’m far less risk averse than my parents in the best ways because I’ve seen their journey. (There’s a joke in here about shrooms but I’ll save it for another post) We have options, we’ve seen the plays, so play with the formulas til they suit you.
Say it loud if you’re proud. It would be a shame to live your Black experience, with all your Black lived nuance and not put it into historical context. Every time someone is “the first Black ___” to win a thing, it’s a spotlight on institutional racism and more important, Black excellence. My first boss out of undergrad asked me to turn down my Blackness at work (she was a Howard grad and Delta) and I immediately quit and never have I done that since. Chest held high, I needed employers, customers and coworkers to understand I’m the first and the best and you need to refer to that information when you refer to me.
The audacity of Life. The reason I’m writing this today is because I’m the same age as MLK and Malcolm X when they were assassinated (and I just rewatched Malcolm X this morning). Life is precious and you have the ability to live a life worth remembering and it’s your only one. It’s not your duty to take a bullet for the Black community, but I hope you feel compelled to act when you see injustice or even just room for improvement in the world. I create things to solve problems of community and where we can congregate socially in space and time. We need you to show up enthusiastically as you to solve the problems you see in the world.
I hope you can embrace the ideology of “Living Black History” and know that you too, are living a life worth living and telling stories about, and not just during February.
