Black History Revisited
Hey everybody,
Haven’t really talked to you guys since the yellow, black and white ref--ahem, Steelers won the Super Bowl 21-10 over the Seahawks. Well, football season is over, and we’re diving here headfirst into the…(thinking of a word here to describe it)…month that is Black History month.
What I’m gonna do here right now is drop off this classic poem that I wrote last year, just so you guys know how I kinda feel about the whole endeavor…and oh yeah, I have some things to tell you about the Aiken-South Aiken basketball game, and some comments Sanaa Lathan made when I come back. Later everybody,
The Good Doctor
Another note: If you guys haven’t been checking out Jig’s V-Day series on his site, then you guys are missing some serious thangs going on. But here’s the classic:
--A Good Doctor Exclusive--
Black and White (History Month)
The black face cries white tears
Over still being enslaved after hundreds of years
Does the white represent pain?
Does the white represent light?
Can we really say if white is wrong or right?
I think for every obsidian truth there are some ebon lies
So for every stealth attack we get got not by surprise
Thus black and white fusion representative of seeing with clarity
So black antacid with white water help to stomach life with regularity
Would be nice to see things without a gray area race patch
But America’s vision is 1/12th black
And even that fuzzy vision is being blurred
When President Valentine’s Groundhog Day occurred
Hispaniorientaleuropeanvision caused a vision deterred
Eating away at Carter G’s soul like a vulture
Not to say I’m not appreciative of a cornucopia of culture
It’s just that the fruits of our labor become rotten and my heart slips
Ironically as we go away from black, we slide more into the darkness
So the month becomes more of a mockery
But I’ve used up too much space for philosophy
Quick!
Harriet Martin Sojourner and X
Orators politicians and masters of text
Henson Douglass Hansberry and Haley
Fitzgerald Dandridge Baker, other sophisticated ladies
And yet still you’ve heard of these folks before
Sadly I don’t have time for anymore
I only had 28 lines
Oh yeah, and I got this nice little text from a friend of mine...she's not a Valentine (ha ha, St. Val), but this was a good look. It reads...
Distance and time may separate us
But friendship and memories won't
Just thinking of you today
May your troubles be less
Your blessings more
And nothing but joy comes in your door
Yep, low-maintenance brotha...catch you good folks later...and I haven't forgotten about Lost Art, just making sure it comes out right. You guys'll see...
Haven’t really talked to you guys since the yellow, black and white ref--ahem, Steelers won the Super Bowl 21-10 over the Seahawks. Well, football season is over, and we’re diving here headfirst into the…(thinking of a word here to describe it)…month that is Black History month.
What I’m gonna do here right now is drop off this classic poem that I wrote last year, just so you guys know how I kinda feel about the whole endeavor…and oh yeah, I have some things to tell you about the Aiken-South Aiken basketball game, and some comments Sanaa Lathan made when I come back. Later everybody,
The Good Doctor
Another note: If you guys haven’t been checking out Jig’s V-Day series on his site, then you guys are missing some serious thangs going on. But here’s the classic:
--A Good Doctor Exclusive--
Black and White (History Month)
The black face cries white tears
Over still being enslaved after hundreds of years
Does the white represent pain?
Does the white represent light?
Can we really say if white is wrong or right?
I think for every obsidian truth there are some ebon lies
So for every stealth attack we get got not by surprise
Thus black and white fusion representative of seeing with clarity
So black antacid with white water help to stomach life with regularity
Would be nice to see things without a gray area race patch
But America’s vision is 1/12th black
And even that fuzzy vision is being blurred
When President Valentine’s Groundhog Day occurred
Hispaniorientaleuropeanvision caused a vision deterred
Eating away at Carter G’s soul like a vulture
Not to say I’m not appreciative of a cornucopia of culture
It’s just that the fruits of our labor become rotten and my heart slips
Ironically as we go away from black, we slide more into the darkness
So the month becomes more of a mockery
But I’ve used up too much space for philosophy
Quick!
Harriet Martin Sojourner and X
Orators politicians and masters of text
Henson Douglass Hansberry and Haley
Fitzgerald Dandridge Baker, other sophisticated ladies
And yet still you’ve heard of these folks before
Sadly I don’t have time for anymore
I only had 28 lines
Oh yeah, and I got this nice little text from a friend of mine...she's not a Valentine (ha ha, St. Val), but this was a good look. It reads...
Distance and time may separate us
But friendship and memories won't
Just thinking of you today
May your troubles be less
Your blessings more
And nothing but joy comes in your door
Yep, low-maintenance brotha...catch you good folks later...and I haven't forgotten about Lost Art, just making sure it comes out right. You guys'll see...
posted by The Good Doctor at 2:21 PM
2 Comments:
"People of color must weigh their interests in avoiding issues that might reinforce distorted public perceptions against the need to acknowledge and address intra-community problems. Yet the cost of suppression is seldom recognized, in part because the failure to discuss the issue shapes perceptions of how serious the problem is in the first place." - Kimberle Crenshaw (CLS professor in an article).
I saw this quote and thought about the couple discussions Ken and I have had somewhat recently about the overgeneralizations found in statements by such celebrities as Cosby and Latham and McGruder and the effects of said overgeneralizations. Thought I'd put it out there and see if anyone wanted to speak on it.
The key is this; you should not by any means avoid the issues, but there are tactful ways of addressing anything. That's why I chose music as my medium a long time ago; though other races get into it, hip hop was something that originated amongst struggling minorities and they still have "ownership" of it in some degree. The most sound way to operate is to acknowledge the dividing lines between groups of people and use those lines as points of engagement; it makes the approach more exclusive. However, I'm not saying that this is the only way to approach it. Perhaps, for instance, people like McGruder and Cosby choose their particular mediums and avenues because of the fact that it DOES bring other groups into the picture; a pressure move you might say. But in McGruder's case, you gotta acknowledge that it's not just people of color that he deals with; he includes in smaller portions the issues of whites and mulattos as well, because I think he recognizes the fates of all peoples in America as conjoined. This is also because he is much more exact and specific in his dealings versus Cosby, who addresses only the issues of the Black community with clear separation from other groups. I would say more, but that's the bulk of it... I gotta go to class.
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