Black History Month: Roots, Fruits and Bitter Truths By Sheldon Taylor

                                                         

I'm God but it seems like I'm locked in hell.              

 In 1990, rap deity Rakim's poetic picture of purgatory placed the frailties of Black majesty on full display. The microphone fiend's message from In The Ghetto was both cryptic and clear: Heavy is the head that wears the crown. 

 Black History Month teeters at a similar brink of fragility's edge.

 I'm not caught up in politics, I'm no black activist on a so-called scholar's d----, I see brothers quote math plus degrees, look at professor ass n----s, can't feed they own seeds.  ---GZA: Swordsman (1995)  

 Top Five lists are dissected and debated but many of us couldn't analyze DuBois' Talented Tenth ideology if our lives depended on it. The brilliance of Richard Ellison and E. Franklin Frazier is lost to memory but bourgeoise---that much-maligned term they helped usher into modern Black vernacular---survives in all its mangled majesty: bougie/boujee. 

 Sharp indictments and guilty verdicts condemn blatant omissions from American history. Instead of modeling scholarly due diligence of  J. A. Rogers, Dr. Yosef Ben-Jochannan and Arturo Alfonso Schomburg---we lean on You Tube and Google to do the heavy lifting. 

And then there's Hollywood.

2018's Black Panther's colonialism and tribalism reframes African complex relationship with its former Western colonizers. In Panther's final scene, Chadwick Boseman's T'Challah arrives at the United Nations prepared to state Wakanda's case from a position of strength---not as  leader of a conquered country in search of a benefactor.   

During an interview promoting comic book La Boriquena, graphic artist Edgar Miranda-Rodriquez compared his project to Panther, touting its New York/Puerto Rican backdrop as more realistic than mythical Wakanda---a oversight by many captivated by Panther's visual majesty and stellar performances who missed its historical undertones hiding in plain sight.

The verbal sparring of Boseman masterworks Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and Da 5 Bloods unleashed thematic jabs tackling age, race, betrayal, economics, exploitation and mental anguish that was masterful. The films were panned by some more accustomed to linear storytelling in 2015's Bessie or visual shorthand in films like the 2016 Roots reboot. 

Carving away the original's sprawling story lines and revolving cast of memorable characters that captivated over 200 million viewers over six consecutive nights back in  1977----the remake is clearly constructed with the hashtag generation in mind. Breezing over nuances that made Roots I so compelling, the reboot condenses two generations into four episodes.          

Even Judas and The Black Messiah isn't spared of criticism. Rapper NoName rejected recording the film's theme song due her belief that it "watered down Fred Hampton's politics and presence"---oblivious to the fact that he'd only been a member of the Black Panther Party a little over year prior to his tragic death at the tender age of 21 and just coming into his own.

Black cinema disparity mirrors Black history's struggle to be all things to many:  Can it represent eternalism----a view that all points in time are equally "real" and  presentism---the idea that only present point of views are absolute?  The cultural jihad is real.

 In Roots one, actor Richard Roundtree plays Sam, a swaggering slave bidding for the affections of Leslie Uggams'  Kizzy. A powerful scene has him cowering at the knees of an angry master who flicks the sweat of his horse in Sam's face. Multiple takes are required as Roundtree struggles to complete the scene---often walking away in mid-take. 

In the end, reality beckons and a paycheck calls---Roundtree composes himself and ditches John Shaft's virile swagger for Sam's emasculation. In 1977, we'd feel Roundtree's pain and honor his post-blaxploitation career choice (and descent) in dignified silence. In 2021 cancel culture---maybe we'd vilify him. 

These days, we pick at the cadavers of Black America's turbulent past, casting away carcasses of The Help, 12 Years A Slave and Birth of A Nation---a far cry from the days when we flocked to TV period pieces  Roots: The Next Generation, Backstairs At The White House and Freedom Road that were only vehicles for Black actors to showcase their talents.                                   

 "They gave us Black History Month in February 'cause its the shortest month of  the year."----unknown             

 Poked and prodded like Middle Passage survivors on auction blocks---BHM is eternally  chained to ongoing intense scrutiny. Detractors deem it subversive and divisive. Monolithic and out of step. Defiant clap backs like "my Black History is 365 days a year" attack unfounded urban myths and conspiracy theories penetrating BHM's legacy like hollow points to the chest.

Carter G. Woodson's gift of uplift is so much more. 

Though invisible, I am in the great tradition of American thinkers.

--Ralph Ellison                                                           

Invisible Man (1952)  

 Self-esteem makes me super, superb and supreme.

---Eric B. & Rakim                              

 Follow The Leader (1988)                  

 The son of-ex slaves and a child of post-slavery Reconstruction, Woodson came of age as Negroes took their first steps out of bondage. Tackling illiteracy was the first rung on the long ladder to upward mobility.

White liberals donating lending money, talent and resources to educate freed Negroes in a manner Woodson described as "philanthropic." Disputes over Black academic direction erupted in conflict that still exists to this day: classical education versus industrial education.

Negro educated/ affluent advocated for the pursuit of languages, sciences and the arts. White benefactors and their southern opponents endorsed industrial education. One uplifted the intellect and the souls of black folk. The other maintained a viable and much-needed agricultural workforce---purpose versus practicality.

Wily race man Booker T. Washington preferred the latter. In Up From Slavery (1901), Washington drew a line between "superficial and substantial" and the "ornamental and the useful"--- playing on America's desire to maintain the social status quo and halt Negro migration to Northern cities, he commanded large financial donations to advance the cause.

Critics panned Washington's message of agricultural self-containment. Woodson's The Miseducation of the Negro (1933) summarized the conflict---- "for a generation thereafter the quarrel (over classical and industrial education) was the dominant topic in Negro schools and churches throughout the United States."

The man who sets the ideals of the community where he lives, 

directs its thoughts and heads its social movements.

---W.E.B. DuBois: The Negro Problem (1903)                                         

As Negro America was locked into an internal civil war fueled by class-consciousness, white scholars were waging a battle from outside.  The introduction of W.E. B. DuBois' The Reconstruction and Black America explore how color-coded cognitive dissonance impelled most educated white people, in the name of ‘objective’ history and social science, to discount the beliefs of most educated colored people as propaganda or fiction.”

 DuBois battled with editors of the Encyclopedia Britannica over the inclusion of  research data dismissed as “a matter of opinion and as such should find no place in an encyclopedia.”

                          

 Woodson pushed back. In 1916, he advocated for Negro History Week to acknowledge contributions of Black Americans to history. The month of February was chosen in honor the birth month of  president Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. 

 At the time of Woodson's creation, the country was locked in the grip of domestic terrorism. The Tuskegee Institute Archives reported over 2600 Negroes were lynched in America. Popular songs like Ev'ry Race Has Its Flag But The Coon celebrated America's melting pot while framing its Black citizens as second class---even if they had been the country longer than Europeans passing through Ellis Island.

In response, Black nationalist/ messiah Marcus Garvey---under the spotlight of the American government prompting them to integrate the FBI, sending a Black Judas in his midst--designed the Pan-African flag firmly rooting Black America within the nation's collective firmament. Less confrontational but just as revolutionary, Woodson's brainchild was just as significant.

Eventually expanded to the 28 days celebrated today, Black History Month is more than a tranquilizer soothing the souls of ravaged peace. More than a list of facts and firsts or ancestral heirlooms tried on for size once a year and then locked away for self-keeping.  

 If we dig deep we'll find a lifetime of roots and fruits. Tragedies and triumphs. Strengths and shortcomings. Even revisionist hypocrisy. 

We'll find that MLK was more than a historical pathway or propaganda tool.

 We'll find that yester-year's Reconstruction voter disenfranchisement is today's voter suppression. NYC's 1863 Draft Riot and 1919's Red Summer is 2021's  Capitol riot.

We'll discover how Trump prototype Woodrow Wilson advocating Black lynchings across America and during a White House screening of Birth of A Nation praised the film:"It's like writing history with lightning. My only regret is that it is all so terribly true." 

We'll connect Stacey Abrams, Ayanna Pressley, and Stacey Plaskett to Shirley Chisolm's political audacity and Ida B. Wells, Fannie Lou Hamer, Kathleen Cleaver's boldness.

We'll discover seminal Black congressman William Dawson co-signed Chicago mayor Richard Daley's strategies that sabotaged MLK boycotts and gave rise to Fred Hampton's activism.

We'll revel in Paul Robeson's command of sports, arts, activism and intellectualism that has never been surpassed. 

We'll ponder how DuBois  dismissed Marcus Garvey's pomp ("negro with a hat") in the 1920's only to embrace Pan-Africanism in his nineties and retreat to Ghana to spend his final years. 

We'll reflect how as lions in winter, the transgressions of Bill Clinton, George Bush 1 & 2 and John McCain at the peak of their powers are forgiven as we vilify  Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton after a life of service and self-sacrifice. 

If we dig even more deeper---we'll examine our proud connection to the African Diaspora yet debate Kamala's blackness and lament  the influx of Black British actors resurrecting our heroes on the big screen.

As pandemic and time continues to claim our beloved ancestors, preservation of oral and documented history is crucial. For the uninformed and inquisitive, allow Black History Month to introduce you to a deeper humanity. For the rest of us---allow it to cement our immortality.