Two particular things caught my attention this week and the more I thought about them, the more I realized that they are actually related. The first thing was the lack of interest in "Black History Month" and the second thing was the upcoming "celebrity" boxing match between DMX and Zimmerman.
I think it's pretty safe to say that the people of African decent throughout the world really don't give a flying f*%# about "Black History Month". Essentially I've seen and heard more discussion this week about DMX and Zimmerman fighting than I have about the plight of our forefathers or the role they played in making society what it is today.
I mean most offices or institutions say they support the whole notion of "Black History Month" hence they will put up some sort of display etc, which is quite admirable. But I keep telling myself that if more people took "Black History Month" seriously and if if we were more passionate and proud of the African heritage that this whole notion of a DMX vs Zimmerman celebrity boxing match would have been nipped in the bud relatively quickly.
Control of our society has quietly sifted into the hands of the youth, which is not such a bad thing because essentially they are the future and they will determine the "next move". The problem is this our youth don't appreciate or even celebrate the struggle that our forefathers went through.To most of the youth the concept of racial discrimination and the role that the Africans played in the formation of modern society is an anomaly something that was out and about 50 and 60 years ago. To them it no longer exists and doesn't deserve much thought.
Most of the younger generation don't even think that their is a racism problem. Those that live in countries where the majority of the population is of African decent will most likely look around them and say, "Everyone who is in a position of power is of African decent. The President of the most powerful country in the world is black, so what's the big deal, we here now!"
I don't necessarily blame them for that because essentially they are young and their brains are still developing. Added to that is the fact that society now operates under a kind of "here and now" pretense. So the past doesn't really have that much value to them. I do however blame "us" as the older generation. Here's why. More often than not we as adults fail to point out the subtle forms of discrimination that are prevalent in society today. Most times we prefer to let things slide, or turn the other cheek, or simply sweep things under the carpet, which I will say is quite admirable and necessary in certain situations. However what we fail to do is point out the situations to the younger ones. So they essentially grow up thinking everything is fine and dandy and the instances of racism and discrimination that are out and about presently are basically one off situations ie, Trayvon Martin and Zimmerman.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that we should basically plant the seed of racism in the hearts of the young. What I'm saying is that we should teach our youth that racism is still out and about and we actually need to do something about it.
For me that's were the whole "Black History Month" thing comes in. If we show the younger generation what their forefathers went through and facilitate some sort of discussion with them as to what we can do now I'm pretty confident that that will help us to the eradicate the problem.
I also think that the media has some blame to take as well in regards to the don't care attitude that much of the youth have towards "Black History Month". I don't think they do nearly enough to promote the month in a positive light. I mean sure they might run a commercial or two, or the news may include some report on some school which served watermelon and fried chicken and cornbread for lunch in the cafeteria. But lets be honest with ourselves here, they are just doing the "politically correct" thing. Their heart isn't behind it and the youth are smart enough to see that.
Essentially the media is all about ratings and money and that's what this whole DMX vs Zimmerman thing is all about. This dude killed an unarmed 17 year old black kid, got off and now he's about to make some money off a "celebrity fight". Is this what the civil rights movement was all about? Is this what Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and millions of others were fighting for. I just can't help but feeling that if we were more in touch with "Black History Month" the norms and values in our society would change significantly and for the better.
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