Each year, we dedicate 28 days to learning about our culture. Corporations, cities and organizations dedicate funds to promoting Black History, and they should.
After all, many southern governments and corporations benefitted from our forefathers’ forced labor as slaves. And the most damaging thing about American slavery for Blacks was the attempt to wipe out our sense of identity.

I must concede that it would appear that the social policy of the last four decades has emasculated the Black male.
Think about it:  in the pre-1950s era Black America, Black manhood was defined by a much higher standard.  Men took care of the women back then, but today, Black male weaklings seek out Black women with enough low self-esteem that they will actually take care of a grown man!  I’ve seen them in the malls buying expensive “gifts” for their girly-men and proud to do it!

Participation in the political process without a unified, decided agenda is political suicide for any community seeking to have its legitimate needs and aspirations met.

The potential power of the Black vote in American politics has been a factor for the past 40 plus years that no individual seeking political office can ignore. That power was reestablished with the election of President Barack Obama in 2008.

It was easy for Black youth to dive headfirst into the electoral process at that time. They were energized by the thought of electing this country’s first Black president. Electing Obama was at the top of the Black agenda, Black folks said “we get it” and made a sprint for the polls. We changed the world forever when we decided to speak with one voice.

As Black History Month comes to a close, I thought it might be time for a reminder that it’s not time to drop our guards. We have had the privilege of watching history unfold as Barack Hussein Obama was installed as the first Black president of the United States. Many thought we had finally overcome. But it’s not time to burn our picket signs. It ain’t over, yet.

There appears to be an underlying agreement among some religious leaders that they are exempt from giving monies and valuable resources to Haiti because of a curse.

For all the divisions that rend the U.S., there is at least one point of agreement between today’s Blacks and Whites, Democrats and Republicans, young and old: factually, Blacks are inattentive to America’s system of capitalism.  Amid American capitalism 98 percent of Blacks are consumers, not producers.  Black Americans are dependant on other groups for feeding, clothing, culture and language and need organized participation in ways of America’s wealth.

The success of African-Americans cannot be compared to any other race of people in America. Nor can our struggles, although we are not the only ones to suffer from racism and oppression. Native Americans, once portrayed as savages, were deceived, defeated and their land was stolen from them. And those who were not killed were swept into reservation camps where many still live. Those reservations are the equivalent of the 40 acres and a mule, freed slaves were promised in the Reconstruction Era.

Throughout the years, Native Americans have worked hard to gain control of their reservations and make them lucrative. Treaties they made with the U. S. government many years ago allowed them to preserve their language and tribal culture. In many ways, they have achieved what Pan-Africans have only dreamed of and the government helped them to do it.

In Texas, Mexican ranchers were killed and their land stolen from them by the now respected Texas Rangers. That is, after the land we now know as Texas was stolen from Mexico. For centuries they have served as under paid servants on land that once belonged to them. They were ridiculed and mocked by the other students.

Once President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the Civil Rights Bill of 1964, with Dr. Martin Luther King looking over his shoulder, Black people who had a little money couldn’t wait to move from segregated small towns into the big city. But, by the time Black folk got moved in and they jumped the picket fence to go and meet their new neighbors, White folk had already moved out.

Soon after, those Black families went back to those small towns and spread the word about the inner city. The new neighborhood was now populated with the same folks from the small town they left. They all may as well have stayed where they were.

On Feb. 15, some 190 years ago, Susan Brownell Anthony was born. American history buffs know her name instantly.
Even those who aren’t especially fascinated with American history would do well to learn of the legacy of this determined, courageous and articulate patriot. A Quaker, teacher, temperance and abolition organizer, she also worked for emancipation, and advocated equal pay for equal work.

Her most famous cause, as will be documented forever in American history, was assuring that women in the United States would have the right to vote in public elections. In 1852, at the age of 32, Susan B. Anthony quit teaching and joined the fight for women’s suffrage.

My father’s birth certificate says he is a “Negro.” My birth certificate says I am “Colored.” My daughter’s says she is “African-American.” My grandson’s says he is “Black.” We have four generations from the same bloodline, but we are identified with four different words to describe the same ethnicity.

I don’t mind being called “Colored,” or that my daddy was a “Negro.” But some people want to get rid of these words. They are offended by them. They do not realize that each word tells a story about our history. Each word tells us who we are and what we have gone through to get where we are.