We're baaaaaack!
I can't believe it's returned so soon, but time flies when you're being black. So, to America and all who watch us, Happy Black History Month!
Most are familiar with the annual ritual by this point: public figures speak respectfully of African-American contributions to the latter half of our hyphenated identities; Corporate America embraces 12.85 percent of the population by using images of our most prominent historical figures to endorse its products; schools and community centers adjust their programming, and there is a measurable increase in the level of blackness nationwide.
I've been invited to participate in this tradition in a small way here at Huffington Post where I'll be acting as guest book editor to help profile works by or about black people. Over the coming weeks, these pages will feature guest blogs by a variety of black literary voices as well as my own recommended reading lists.
Despite the innocent yet ignorant expectations of non-black schoolmates from my past, I cannot speak for all black people, so along with my own experience, I'll be employing the recommendations of others in helping craft this month's suggestions. These will be personal and professional connections, the community over at Jack & Jill Politics (where I blog) and of course, Facebook and Twitter (where I live).
These recommendations are a work in progress, but I can guarantee that I'll use my modest influence (they refused to change the name of the site to The Blackington Post) to touch on the following themes:
Comedy & Satire: Seeing the ways in which black people have responded to our situation in this country through humor is one of the things that inspired me to pursue comedy in the first place. Whether in response to struggle or as an expression of joy, the use of comedy and satire by black Americans is worthy of attention. Really though, I just look forward to recommending Dick Gregory's book "Nigger". I want to make white people buy, but not reference out loud, a book called "Nigger".
The Diaspora: One of the first books I owned as a child was called "Africa Is A Continent, Not A Country". As most-recently evidenced by the amount of uninformed commentary related to Haiti's history, we could all use a better understanding of the history and experiences of people of African descent around the world. While Black History Month is technically an American phenomenon, a more global perspective is essential to understanding our domestic realities.
Post-Post-Racial: When Barack Obama was elected president, it was the not-so-silent hope of many that the moment represented the end of race as a key determinant of outcomes in this country. Since then, Chris Matthews may have experienced momentary racial amnesia, but there's no doubt that the election of America's first half-black president is having an effect, if not on outcomes, at least on the way we have started to talk about race.
Please check back often, and if you have your own recommendations, please leave them in the comments here or post to Twitter with the hashtag #AfAmBooks
Follow Baratunde Thurston on Twitter: www.twitter.com/baratunde
Considering that this is my first official blog post of my guest book editorship since the introduction, my first Black History Month lesson will be a brief primer on "CP Time."
Marian Wright Edelman: SNCC, Fifty Years Later
On Feb. 1, 1960, when I was a senior in college in Atlanta, four black freshmen from North Carolina sat in at a Whites-only lunch counter in a Greensboro Woolworth's store. It was just the spark I and so many black youth were waiting for.
Sasha Abramsky: When the Extraordinary is Taken for Granted
Even if many of Obama's policy goals flounder, when his legacy is eventually toted up that foundational achievement, his election, will still render him one of the country's most historically important leaders.
Michelle Alexander: The New Jim Crow
There are more African Americans under correctional control today -- in prison or jail, on probation or parole -- than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began.
Here's one for your list...and all lists, for that matter.
It's "Brainwashed:Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority. It's the first book in history to look at American racism as the product of a 400 year-long advertising, marketing and PR campaign. It calls AfrAmerican slaves the "first successful American brand".
The author is Tom Burrell, who owned what was for years the largest "black" advertising agency, so he oughtta know. Right?
http://buythecover.com
BTW: In the interest of full disclosure, I helped write the book.
It was great to meet you and share the stage with you in Denver in August 2008. You and your readers may be interested in this new book by an incredible young African American poet named Danielle Drake-Burnette.
It's called CAST IRON LIFE: A Collection of Poems and Recipes.
"Danielle Drake-Burnette has put forth an amazing text and necessary affirmation for not only contemporary Black Literature, but for the African American voice as a whole." --Ise Lyfe
Check it out here: http://drewdellinger.org/pages/products/193/cast-iron-life
PS: what's up with all the retrograde racism in these comments? It's just sad. So many people seeming so proud to be on the wrong side of history...
Isnt it wonderful that Arianna's organizaation has evolved into a truly open and politcally sensitive organization....
Warm regards,
Michael Winters
But before you get started, go check out my Buy The Cover blog. It's becoming the must-see site for anyone who claims to know anything that's happening in the quickly changing book world.
http://buythecover.com
Power inst a race issue, its about subjugating everyone and to do that you need people at each others throats rather than burning down Goldman Sachs and the Capitol Building.
"Would be nice to have a American history month."
This comment is so dumb, I'm speechless.
http://buythecover.com
You are not alone and you are valued for the many contributions to the U.S. and to all civilizations around the world. Just because I'm white does not mean I do not understand all that has come out of the African Continent, that has influenced man for millennium.
http://buythecover.com
Will check out the book list.
I sit on the elevated train texting this due to the sacking of the libraries at Alexandria, the hijacking of higher math from the middl east and Africa for knowledge stolen and applied to the present vagaries of modern western technology.
This month I get to tell all my friends of nothern extraction how they suffer from the legacy of the ice man.
This is gonna be fun.
BTW: Alexandria was founded by Alexander the Great. A Greek and just to tell you know Greeks are white.
I guess he found Egypt too..
Also if we really wanted to celebrate for black history month, why did we choose the shortest month of the year ?
Personally I don't really care for any color history month, recognizing one color over another is sort ridiculous and sort of self-defeating. We should have days for just individuals. But as a diverse society we have come together to try to heal past wounds by constantly repeating to ourselves "we are not racist, we are not racist". After all how does current society reconcile with the fact that no one living now days has truly seen the worst days of yesterday, with slavery or Jim Crow laws.
Also why does everyone keep mentioning the voting bloc for Obama he is just as white as he is black?
Waiting to be flamed for questioning...
"One Drop Rule" Are you seriously going to invoke a colloquial term that you almost have to go and look up because of it's relative obscurity in our society? How you put that sentence makes it seem multiple races will go with whatever color of the person on the ballot because of their skin color. If that is how you actually view it that is pretty sad. My vote goes to the person I'm most philosophically or ideologically am in line with. That also doesn't go to say there is actual truth in that, but I don't care to focus on the racist in society and there unjust myopic views in life.
"As for the month thing, which was originally a week, there is a reason. You can refer to Dr. Carter G. Woodson, the originator, and his reasoning for the month of February at your leisure."
Apparently you didn't see the sarcasm in my words, the length of month doesn't matter. Just how it is put is funny to me. There is a disclaimer at the bottom of my last post.... Were talking about race her it is a serious matter, and I realize that.
Next question is -- being "guilty by association", an example of a logical fallacy?
Here's a free offering intentionally or unintentionaly buried along with so much of the contributions of African Americans to the world and this nation!
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/Henrietta-Lacks-Immortal-Cells.html
After all he does promote separation or hatred.
Or Jesse Jackson and Big Al NotSoSharpton.
If none of those guys have ideas, then check with Emil Jones.
Or simply ask the 92% of black voters that pulled the lever for Obama and only 8% for Hillary.
In seriousness if there must be a month long program that further segregates society then use that month to focus on:
* Benefits of Education (basic skills such as math, science, and reading.
* Family values and importance of proper parenting.
* Under age pregnancy and how to avoid it
* Drugs and how to avoid them.
* Personal accountability and social values.
Harry Reid wants to know if this is an light or dark skinned history month. He doesn't know how to address the crowd.