We’ve often seen comments, on social media or attached to online publication articles, from people (usually of other races) that are upset that there is “BLACK” anything. They speak passionately of why color should not be an issue or how we should all just get along and focus on the fact that we are all human. Wouldn’t that be wonderful? However, racial tension was not created by people of African descent. Racial tension was created by those who captured and enslaved millions. Separatism was created by those who traveled around the world colonizing and claiming land that didn’t belong to them; those individuals who decided that some races are beneath others. It has been and continues to be perpetuated in every aspect of society, both in the U.S. and abroad.
On the flipside, there are those who say we should not be allowed to have Black History Month or Black History classes. “Do we have White History Month or White History classes?” Yes we do! Every day we are surrounded by European history. We don’t see anyone complaining when almost all of the U.S. is celebrating the 4th of July (1776) as an Independence Day when our ancestors were still enslaved!
The other argument we hear is from African-Americans (Africans in America) who claim that they are in no way African, because they’ve never been there. Italian Americans, Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, Irish Americans, German Americans… the list goes on and on of people that are proud to tell you where their ancestors are from, regardless of whether they’ve had the opportunity to visit their homeland. Be proud of YOUR homeland, beautiful people! We have a rich and highly sought after culture. People of other races spend some serious time and money to darken their skin, make their hair curlier, and inject their body parts to make them fuller.
The bottom line is, BLACK CENTRAL™ or any effort to focus on people of African descent is not a result of hatred for other races. The focus is on uplifting and empowering our people, in the same way that you would focus on helping the people in your household or family before you would expend energy on strangers. This is a positive movement… a know and help THY SELF movement and there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with that. We must take charge of our destiny as a people. We must not be ashamed of loving who we are. “We love being Black” does not mean “We hate everyone else.”
Ashé