Sachi Robinson, Period 6, 3/6 Modern Myth 2024

 

Black History Month is celebrated through February, and its intended purpose is to focus on the contributions of African Americans to the United States. A commonly preconceived notion is that it unfairly elevates Black people, and this fallacy fails to acknowledge the plight of Black people and how we continue to feel the legacy of formal systems of racism. The month never seems to fulfill its intended purpose and oftentimes comes across as a lazy attempt at making amends for hundreds of years of oppression and prejudice, and for many corporations, it simply serves as a cheap money grab. As a biracial, American-born, and bred oldest daughter, it is easy to get victimized by the stereotypical identity crisis. I fall into the acceptable category of black, presenting little semblance of a culture and bearing my mother's slim nose and loose curls. I fall into the acceptable category of black, where people feel comfortable touching my hair and telling me that if my skin weren’t black, I wouldn’t be black and that my natural combination of features is innately European. It's as if I should be proud of lacking the ethnic features that would remind Americans of how my family got here and why they had no choice but to stay. And so I sit, the non-threatening and docile kind of black, year after year, unaware that I was allowed to disapprove of the school's “Black History Month” performance, just grateful enough to see someone like me on stage.

Young, impressionable children with preconceived notions of race and stereotypes watch these men with wide eyes as they contort and juggle, laugh at their sudden outbursts, and hold their breath as they perform precarious tricks. In doing so, they reduce the entirety of black culture to a spectacle. Media as a whole strongly contributes to the articulation of identity and values surrounding culture and communities, but it also allows for the challenging and dissection of these infrastructures. My perception of this entire affair may very well be an opinion that is not entirely my own, but rather a sensitivity that I was force-fed and that has been cultivated through hours spent scrolling. Was this hypersensitivity, or “hypergratitude”? Hypersensitivity would imply caring too much, picking apart the performance, and examining how every action is directly harmful to the future of the black community. Hypersensitivity would imply writing an entire essay on it. Excessive gratitude is indicative of a deeper underlying issue: a culture that raises children to take what they can get. To appreciate all efforts and attempts, even if they are viewed as unsatisfactory. We are raised in a participation-award society where trying your best gets you the same as those barely coasting by. In expressing excessive gratitude for everything, you sacrifice your sense of self. By putting up with the bare minimum in the process, we minimize our own qualms. This harmful practice can also prevent individuals from taking a step back and examining society as a whole, making us hesitant in our questioning. In essence, it forces people to be apologetic for simply being themselves and enhances a toxic cycle of comparative suffering. I find myself reconsidering the villainization of these black men using their talents to make an honest living and turning to the system that has allowed for this event to take place at all. They are contracted to come back yearly and whether they understand the context of their performance is unclear. I remind myself that real life is not the Internet. All of my actions have consequences, and it is my responsibility as a human being to exist in my best form without intentionally squandering the potential of others. We must celebrate the past while simultaneously acknowledging the present. 

For millions of African Americans across the country, Black History Month serves as a beacon of hope, a reminder that you can persevere against all odds. The stories that we are taught are catered to the masses: peaceful and stoic leaders such as Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks, with little mention of Malcolm X and the Black Panthers. Black History Month is treated as if this allocated time should be enough to keep us satisfied about the frustrating lack of education and acknowledgement throughout the entire year. The Ancient Greeks. The Roman Empire. The Middle Ages. The Crusades. The Inquisition. The Black Death. The Renaissance. The Industrial Revolution. Colonization. French Revolution. American Revolution. The Civil War. World Wars I and II. The Holocaust. All topics exhaustively researched in World History classes. We’re spoonfed lessons about Abraham Lincoln that praise his progressive policies and the Emancipation Proclamation but fail to scrutinize the malicious intent behind his actions and how he made the conscious decision to not free those enslaved in the allied states in order to keep the states complacent. Recently, a handwritten letter from kindergarten turned up in which I thanked Abraham Lincoln and commended him for his actions. I even went as far as to call him my hero because if he hadn’t freed the slaves, I would “be segregated from my father and sold to a white master and work work work all day and afternoon." The reality is that it took Lincoln two years to properly enforce his proclamation and that there were people being forced to endure several more harvests in Texas before Union troops were sent to inform them of their freedom.

It’s easy to forget how recent slavery was when the reality is that my great- grandmother was the daughter of a slave. In the earlier years of her life, she still served as a slave and went on to instill the slave mentality in her children. She taught them that they should not own land or purchase certain items because these actions were reserved for white men. The fact of the matter is that Black people are still barred from prestigious institutions, including many of the specialized high schools. It seems impossible to me that out of a pool of applicants across New York City, only approximately six can enter in a given year. Instead of a minstrel show, delving deeper into a curriculum of information might prove to be more beneficial and result in fewer incidents of racial-based harassment. Black history is more than African flags hanging in the halls, caricatures of Black women with Afros and their distant gaze plastered on the walls. I call for the proper education of Black history and celebration of our contribution to society. America was built on the backs of slaves, and the fact that they built the entire American economy, the majority of American institutions, and still went on to innovate baffles. The potato chip, the gas mask, the mop, the door handle, the pencil sharpener, and much more were created by Black inventors. Recognizing this doesn't place Black people above any other race but rather serves as positive exposure, which long-term would prevent subconscious racial bias from forming. Any student in the crowd couldn’t have answered what region of Africa the performers claimed to be from, let alone what this had to do with Black culture. I would’ve loved some clarification about how this celebrated any person of color when half of the black students in my entire grade, which comes out to about 3, chose not to attend. There is no one end-all-be-all cure to racism, but the best way to treat it is by starting a discussion in order to really own it and to use that momentum and knowledge to rebuild the rotting infrastructure within our country and grow as people from there. Black History Month should be a time to foster thought and encourage these discussions as we remember that racism was never defeated, only hidden.