It’s Black History Month now and you’ve probably watched the usual Eyes on the Prize clips, listened to the I Have a Dream Speech, and watched a documentary on President Obama’s election. I’m a firm believer in the mantra you have to know where you come from to know where you’re going, and Eyes helps students who often get so little African-American history in their daily education learn about the contributions of black people to American society. However, while I believe Eyes and videos like it are essential tools in the classroom, I find that too many educators fail to focus on the relationship the past has to the present. I realized this when I was talking to my students about the Civil Rights Movement and they said, things like, “but that was so long ago”…and “they’re all dead anyway.” So many of them failed to realize that the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements are only one a generation or two from them.
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Many young black professionals have a deep fear—The Fear– of becoming “that black girl” or that “that black dude, ” even if they never say it. They fear being reduced to some stereotypical character like Bon Qui Qui that is not reflective of who they are and what they embrace.
A new article in this month’s Essence Magazine by Keith Murphy says the Dominican Republic has overtaken Brazil* as the new hot spot for young, black, successful men looking for love, sex and a little fun in the sun. [Fool’s Paradise, February 2010] These men tout all sorts of reasons as to why the tiny island has become the new hotspot for—it’s cheapness, proximity to the U.S., it’s gulf courses are a few…but the main reason? The beautiful women. Many of the men quoted, some of whom were married or boo-ed up, said Dominican women give them the love and respect that sista’s in the states just won’t, can’t or don’t give. All for a price of course. Murphy sums it up:
Last week while I was watching that new Tatyana Ali show on TV One, an ad for the 2010 Census came on. It’s the second time I’ve seen it on that station. All I remember is that there were black folk as well as other racial groups shaking and dancing to a slow paced hip-hop track that urged people to participate in the upcoming Census.
