Happy Black History Month!

The Internet has been stirring with discourse about systematic oppression, we see marginalized groups getting their voice heard among the millions of other voices that take up this space. You'd think they'd be drowned out, but they haven't because they come together and find an understanding among people like them. I see this on Tumblr and Twitter mostly but there is sometimes discourse on Facebook. I can admit I was ignorant when it came race relations and racism in general, I had preconceived and incorrect notions of what it meant or rather what I thought it meant. The Internet, though Tumblr and Twitter specifically, has opened my eyes to what the world really is especially when it came to how the world views me as a black woman.Just as the Internet is a source of information it is also filled with ignorance, birds of all feathers love to flock together when you can hide behind the voiced opinion of an avatar.

As you all know this month was Black History Month, it's a month where white tears soak up history textbooks and the ears of black people are often filled with the cries of "Why isn't there a white history?"

Yes this question is still asked when black children are shot because of what "we might do." Yes it's still asked when a white "rapper" named Macklemore wins a Grammy (which obviously hands out awards on musical talent [heavy sarcasm]) for a black genre and manages to somehow "win" over black artists because a group of wrinkled old white men in a room decided "nah, we can't have black people win their own art form." Hmmm this seems familiar... an invasion is starting once again! It was the same thing that happened with: jazz, rock n roll, blues, soul and even gospel!  The outrage over that grammy win stirred so much discourse around cultural appropriation, Miley was (and continues to be) enough to deal with in 2013, but nearly a week before Black History Month we had to deal with this foolishness! This link pretty much sums up the feelings of a large number of people when we learned he "won."

Moving on from that, Black History Month brings together a sense of solidarity within the black community. The internet has allowed us to speak on issues we hadn't been able to before and learn more about the people who struggled and continue to struggle to afford us the basic rights we have today. I have learned so much about the heritage taken from us and exploitation we constantly have to deal with. And by "us" I mean the black community as a whole: African-Americans, Afro-Caribbean, Afro-Latina, people from African countries and anyone else who identifies as black.  I've learned so much about solidarity among people of color because I realized we've learned from and continuously lift each other up (BlackPower YellowPeril). There are events and people I didn't know about prior to what I've been exposed to from the Internet, and though my parents immigrated here from the Caribbean I was born and raised as a black woman in America. Learning to love my blackness has been a journey and in the end I wouldn't want to be anything else.

Happy Black History Month!