Black History: How I Celebrate American History Month.

by Staff January 26, 2016 3 Comments News Opinion Weekly Columns

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(ThyBlackMan.com) Actress and political commentator Stacey Dash recently ruffled feathers by saying she didn’t think Black History Month nor ethnic television networks were necessary.

For years, I’ve suggested re-branding Black History Month as, American History Month. This suggestion isn’t an escape from Blackness, as some on both sides of the aisle felt. It’s a recognition that our community is interwoven into every strand of the national fabric. I would observe American History Month by acting upon its central premise, which is: Black history is American history and American history is Black history.

For all our inescapable uniqueness, our experience always leads to one inescapable conclusion- we are also universal.

This dynamic of uniqueness and unlversality is especially evident in american-history-2016 a recurring-sometimes riotous-role involving criminal justice reform. American History Month would be a perfect stage to advocate the union of brothers and badges. Its 28 days in February could promote overlooked concern about violent crime shared by cops and Black male concerned citizens. It could highlight athletic leagues, school resource officers, police/community councils, and institutions like the Los Angeles Police Department charter school, which close the gap between police and Black men.

Inner city supporters of law enforcement like ” Detroit Bat-man ” Walter Gildersleeve and New Orleans’ Brother Al Mims would be featured as further proof that brothers and badges can work together. That’s how I would celebrate American History Month.

I’m very glad Stacey Dash raised this overdue issue. Questioning segregation era practices in a time of fairly broad desegregation recognizes our universality, without ignoring the challenges of uniqueness.

Happy American History Month 2016! If anybody has the right to call themselves American, it’s Black folks!

Staff Writer; Nadra Enzi

This brother is an urban security consultant, i.e. “UrbanSafetyist,” who assists businesses and events in securing themselves. Visit his UrbanSafetyism YouTube channel and blog: http://www.urbansafetyism.blogspot.com

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jdean says:
January 28, 2016 at 3:27 pm
Look Marque Anthony you jack-rabbit…if you are of dark-skin/white-skin and your grandparents, parents ain’t from Africa/Europe and you ain’t got no twang in your accent…
Then you are a BLACK MAN/WHITE MAN.
It isn’t that hard you dim-wit.
“and to assign to us all the negative things BLACK is equated with in the dictionary”
*I’m starting to think you like white cock or somthing…why do you care about what they “assigned” us to a generic word like black. You’re crazy…but then again you are a Christian so thats not suprising
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jdean says:
January 27, 2016 at 8:49 pm
Again Africa is a misnomer. It wasn’t called Africa, that’s a Roman name , idiot. Do the research. Im beginning to think your resume isnt real and you are a white person pretending to be BLACK. Google The Moors, Scipio Africanus, Niger, Nigeria, Something because you are one ignant , so called nigga.
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Marque Anthony says:
January 27, 2016 at 3:05 pm
To The Writer, wake up
What’s sad is that we African Americans are still calling ourselves BLACK because Caucasian oppressors called us that to contrast their color and to assign to us all the negative things BLACK is equated with in the dictionary. The fact is, like it or not and believe it or not, YOU ARE BROWN and your car tires are black. You can say black is a culture but when they deal with you, they deal with you based on it’s definition – dismal, gloomy, dark, diabolical, treacherous, devoid of light.
WAKE UP AFRICAN AMERICANS. We do not call the Asian yellow man because he would not stand for it. We do not call the Native American a red man because he would not stand for it. We do not call the Hispanic man a brown man because he would not stand for it. And many Africans, Haitians and Jamaicans do not accept being called a color they know they are NOT.
Ironically, African Americans are the only ethnic group/race on the planet which allows ourselves to be called a color we are not, allowing ourselves to be defined by color, by someone else and to allow ourselves to be attached to a color we are not – a color they filled with negative denotations. Then we fight to help keep the lie in place. Is it any wonder that cops treat us as BLACK people by the definition of dismal, gloomy, treacherous, evil etc?
We will never rise and overcome as a people if we allow other groups to define us, to define us with a lie and we are sadly willing to help them. AFRICAN AMERICAN LIVES MATTER PEOPLE. Black is the color of my car tires, not my skin. I am a family and relationship counselor who specializes in deprogramming African Americans from slavery mindsets.
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