A cause, FINALLY!

So it's been a while since my last post. That's a lazy go-getter for ya. But really, I've been traveling a lot. It was on these travels that a Navy recruiter struck up a conversation with me. After realizing that I was spoken for the conversation diverted from "tell me about yourself" to "tell me about everything else" and we got to talking about the future of Black children in America. Without realizing the words that were coming out of my mouth I began raving about how teaching African-American history in schools alongside the history taught currently would do great things for Black youth. I got on my soapbox about how it would show Black youth that as a race we are capable of more than hitting a golf ball, shooting a basket, or performing on a stage; even as important as some of those things may be/have been for our culture.

African-American history would give Black youth something to strive for, show them that this didn't start with Obama, but in fact it started a long time ago so that Obama could be where he is today. Moreover, learning about the amazing things that Black people have dedicated themselves to and achieved would show our children that they have bigger shoes to fill. Bigger than fighting over drug turf or using violence to prove to someone that you're to be respected, bigger than all the nonsense that is leading our children down the wrong paths.

Just then it occurred to me, this is something that I really feel strongly about. Not only that but it's something I actually know how to act on. It's the school system! I can write my State Rep, I can lobby in Springfield, I can use connections Rick's sisters have (almost all work in the school system) to spread the word to people that can help. In other words, I can do this. I can bring African-American culture - which I sometimes feel entirely without - to the people that need it most: the Black youth of America. Have I finally found a focused purpose? Have I finally found a cause? Do I finally feel like I have a culture to uphold? Will you come with me?

So what did Rick say to me when I brought this up to him? "What about Hispanics? You guys get a whole month!" What about Hispanics?!?! Hello, Rick, I'm Black and I'm one person. I can only take up so many causes. And yes he was deadpan serious about the "whole month" thing. Wow, we really have a road to travel together now don't we.

Where is my culture?

Sometimes I get so jealous because of the culture that Rick has. I'm starting to realize that we are so opposite in every way. Rick's ancestors hail from two different Mexican states, both of which he knows and has visited. I don't know where in Africa my ancestors hail from. And by the color of my family's skin it's too far back in any of our pasts to know it for sure. As an African-American my family, of course, came from the south. And I could go around cooking southern food and speaking in a southern dialect, but that's not really me or my family.


So I'm bound to all of my American-ized ways. I make a better spaghetti sauce than I do a cast iron skillet corn bread. I make salsa like I was born and raised on it, but it takes me an hour to prep a couple of yams. The only other language I know besides English are bits and pieces of the Spanish I was taught in high school. I go to the Mexican grocery regularly. I've bought and cooked fresh cactus before. But I consider the African convenience store by my house a foreign land. Do I need to get immunizations before I try to purchase anything? It's really sad. Do I just not have a real culture? I embrace everything about being African-American. I mean I love it. I get to say what I want about who I want and don't have to put with the slack. People want to give me jobs and small business loans because hey my people were slaves for 200 years right...


So is that my culture, slavery? I don't want to wear that on my back, I don't want to go to the store to purchase that. But that's where all this came from. Our food, our history, our names, our family, it's all we have. This is why I sometimes envy the culture that Rick has. I want a language, I want a homeland, I want native food, I want a family tree that doesn't start in the states.