Negro History Week

Black History Month, African History Month-whatever we call it, how can we celebrate the contributions of a people over the course of history? How can we make people understand us when we barely understand ourselves? I have been blessed with an education that made African history an integral part of everything I learned. I learned that I could not be afraid of or alienated by math because the Egyptians long ago mastered mathematics, and they were Black. I learned that I could not be afraid to travel because Kankan Musa had sent expeditions all around the world. I learned about almost every subject in the context of the contributions of African people to that subject. I was also taught that African History is a living thing that did not at all begin with the introduction of the African slave to the US and the New World. I was taught that African history is the History of Mankind itself since the earliest human beings first stood upright in Africa.
I am listening to Dr Martin Luther King right now, and he was the most amazing man. He had a Nationalist consciousness, and this is never ever talked about. He talked about economic empowerment, the need for "the Negro" to control hi s own destiny, economically, socially and culturally. Now all we hear is "I Have a Dream" and I feel that is just a way to get people to say "See all he wanted was for Blacks and Whites to live together. We did that. Dr. Kings dream has been accomplished". That is such a lie, Dr King wanted Black people in this country to have full equality and here we are barely making it.
It is as if we are a people blinded. Here it is all in front of us, everything we would need to "make it" but we are so busy chasing the "shiny things" as my good friend Malachi Muhammad would say, that we miss the boat, we miss what is truly important. It hurts me so much, I cry sometimes, I really do. From what I know about the History of African people,this is really our lowest point.'
How can we do this to ourselves? How can we not teach our children to pursue excellence? How can we not teach them to take everything that they can and to use it for the betterment of all their people? I had that and I want my children to have that! When exactly did it become favorable or even acceptable to fail? We are such a great people...Marcus Garvey called us "Oh you Noble Ethiopians...." now the kids I work with call each other "Ethies" meaning Ethiopian as some kind of derogatory comment. What happened to us? Here we are just one generation removed from the Black Power movement, one and a half from the civil rights movement and three or four generations out of Slavery. Have we forgotten? Why do we act so beastly towards each other? The sad thing is I think that I know many of the answers to these questions, the sociological and spiritual answers anyway, and that makes me so sad. The answers are just as painful as the questions and the reasons I ask them. I only ask that God Almighty continues to give me the strength to continue to work with these young people and that He blesses me with insight as to how I can aid in the solution, not just point my finger at the problem.
But in anything the steps to forming a solution must start with identifying the problem, then forming a strategy to address the problem, and finally implementing that strategy successfully making the neccessary adjustments along the way.
I have a good handle on what the problem is, I think that I have identified some successful strategies for addressing these problems, all there is to it is for me to get off my butt and implement.
If anyone is reading this, can you please let me know?