My thoughts on…Martin Luther King Day
Today is Martin Luther King Day, a day in which we celebrate the life and work of possibly the greatest black icon. This year is a bit different from previous years, as Coretta Scott King will not be around to join the festivities as she has gone to join her husband. Though Martin Luther King Day is an American celebration, I think blacks everywhere should celebrate it, as we are one race, and a victory for one is a victory for all. I contemplated the divisiveness of our race yesterday as I did my Sunday chores. I don’t know what triggered it. Maybe it was the subconscious knowledge that tomorrow was MLK Day, or maybe it was one of the usual random thoughts that race through my head.
I think blacks are the most divided race, and the ones least aware of their heritage. Look at the Asians. Most of them, even immigrants have some knowledge of their history and a good number of them can speak their native tongue. Look at the Whites. They’re the most historically aware. And how could they not be? Their history is world history. I’m black and though I had no ancestors on it (I think), I can tell you about who was on the Mayflower and where it landed. But what of the blacks? What heritage do we have, and are we aware of it? Do we know who our ancestors are? Do we know of what accomplishments black people have made? The average kid knows about Florence Nightingale, but do they know about Mary Seacole? They know about Thomas Edison, but do they know about his assistant, Lewis Latimer? And I bet many of them don’t know how many famous kings and queens like Akhenaton and Nefertiti were really black.
We can’t put the blame squarely on the shoulders of the white man though. Despite the fact that he took us from our homeland and into 300 years of slavery, failing to record the history of the “things” he used to build his empires, we now have the power and the resources to discover the truth. But why don’t we? Maybe we’ve been told by the white man that we’re inferior so many times that we have actually begun to believe it. Or maybe we think that there’s nothing more to our heritage than rap, drugs and violence? As I thought of this, I realized how little I knew myself, and I felt a little ashamed. So I have begun my own personal journey of discovery, to educate myself on black history. I think all blacks should do the same. I think that if we realize the common history we all share, it will help to unite us, and allow us to hold our heads high with dignity and pride along with the other races. And for the legendary “I have a dream” speech, click here.
Good post Leon, and some very goo questions.
We all should recognise the contribution of Martin Luther King, his fight was not for just afro americans, but for black people. We all should get to know our herritage, slavery is just a part of our history. We need to know what happened before that, what happened throughout slavery and how we fought to gain freedom. Then we will see we are strong.
Talk about divisiveness. One thing that irritates me about black people, is the need to categorise: Black, brown, light brown, light skinned, dark skinned….
Scream that crap to the clan when they are stringing you up on a branch.
We never seem to learn from the past, and that is surely the root of our destruction.
It just seems as if we have a problem moving past slavery. I know that the predujice still exists although it’s finance related rather than skin here. I’ve had the experience of staying with family in the US and she takes offence to almost every stare, every spoken word as long as the person speaking or looking is white. I often wonder if it’s me being insensitive or her being over sensitive. Maybe I don’t know enough about the history to be able to appreciate the present. I’ve always found history to be confusing. What I do know is that the true history needs to be told and not the super hyped onsided story that gets presented whether black white or in between.
what a coincidence i was watching my season 1 cd of the boondocks yesterday and i saw the ep with martin luther king.
Not just for black people. Civil rights were won for all races; latins and asians too and anyone who the government classified as “different” such as Jews, the handicapped, people of mixed race, etc. People need to remember that MLK fought for all people. We forget what life was like before 1962.
An excellent post as usual. I am guilty of not knowing much about black history. Thanks to TV stations like BET, we get snippets of our ancestors and by extension the root of our blackness.
The truth be told, the story of blacks has been successfully ommitted from World history (by the white man) hence the lack of knowledge for those who study basic history in school.
Well said,Leon. MLK fought and died to make the world a better place for all of us. It’s sad that blck people don’t for the most part take the time out to know about our history. Instead we busy making divisions based on lightness, “good hair” and all sorts of other nonsense.
PS.Leon what happened to your blog alignment..Part of the responses are cut off and it’s only when I make a comment I can see the full text.
MLK was such a great man who inspired a lot of people. I try to run my game clan via clan hosting with respect and honor much like he did throughout his legacy.