If it had been proven that I couldn’t cook, would you welcome me into your home to prepare your meals? Would you take the risk that I would try to feed you something that you could not even digest?
No, of course not.
Well, why do we, as people of African descent, continue to invite historical chefs of malice into our homes – where we at times air our dirty laundry – to shed light on the black experience?
I have attended several Black History Programs that have resulted in my disgust as white Americans are speaking, giving the keynote address in cases, on black history.
A history hidden, rewritten and now regurgitated in the simplest, less offensive form possible in order to make everyone feel comfortable.
One speaker even went as far as to say he went on the Internet, typed in black history, and developed his speech.
Another opened his speech by talking about purchasing collard greens in the grocery store.
Is that what our history boils down to, a 15-minute search on AOL, and eating greens?
The reality of people of African descent throughout the Diaspora cannot be summarized in a textbook or an Internet search.
Without the knowledge gained from experienced in the skin that I’m in, you may believe that physical and mental slavery have ended now that the shackles are limited to prison cages.
Or that high school “honors” classes are truly for the academically gifted and not a tool to keep “whites only” classrooms. I looked but could not find that on Yahoo’s search engine.
With the drama surrounding integration, “reverse discrimination,” and the like, a ridiculous argument is that one’s color should not matter when it comes to leading a racial group into” San Kofa,” going back to fetch one’s past in order to have guidance for the future. But let’s be honest, could you see me giving the keynote address at a Chinese History convention?
No, I don’t speak the language both literally and figuratively.
Whether it is simply politics or attempts to be all-inclusive, there are appropriate times for both.
But understand me when I say that I don’t blame the ignorant for being ignorant. I blame those that invite them into our homes to prepare piss poor meals upon which our livelihood depends.
Crystal Muse is a senior business administration student from Charlotte, N.C. She can be reached at musecj@aol.com.