Black History Month-Whoopi Tie Yi A!

It's February 1^st ya'll. Somebody break out the Hennie. Time to celebrate being African American again. Have to be quick, though since this is the shortest month of our 12 month calendar. Go head and bust a move. Just don't twerk. We don't own that one no more.

I don't celebrate Black History month.

I will admit that I used to, just like I used to sing “We Shall Overcome” when circumstance called for it to be sung. But not anymore.

Going back about 25 years or so, I got tired of begging white folks for my dignity and asking them to put their stamp of approval on my ass as a human being. My disgust directly correlated to the time spent being the only Black in the room for 99% of my adult career life.

It's hard to fake that smile after a while...

I thought we would be done with this ish by the time we entered the 21^st Century. The delusional Pollyanna living within me incorrectly believed that white people would see the error of their ways and apologize and stop acting like dicks all the time when a Black or brown person entered the room. Not me, I was supposed to be there. I was the chocolate drop allowed in to flavor their buttermilk. There is always one who is allowed so they can pat themselves on the back to show how post racial they are. Back in the day they called it being color-blind.

I thought white Christians would finally by now have read their bible, thereby knowing and understanding WWJD. I thought Black Christians would have figured out the hoax that is King James and see it as the ultimate joke/control mechanism perpetrated by the Masters of the Universe.

I thought Black History would have morphed into American History by now becoming just History and that there would be no need to remain separate and unequal. The next most segregated place in America after Churches and cemeteries are libraries and bookstores where they still exist.

Instead of integration we have assimilation-our businesses, schools, churches, neighborhoods dry up and die...our culture our music, our hairstyles, clothing and dancing disappear, renamed, re-attributed, made blond, pale and neutral.

Blurred lines everywhere..

Segregation has returned to the cities with urban neighborhood gentrification and the relaxing of affirmative action, school busing and voting rights regulations.

We have a Black President. Yep, we do. However, he is so busy fighting Jim and Janie Crow, now sitting in Congress and his own political party, he ain't got time for us. And we so happy to have him that we applaud our first Black President, knowing that he is not doing our bidding, while praying to white Jesus to give him strength.

And what do we do? We celebrate Black History Month. We pause to sing “We Shall Overcome” instead of “To Be Young Gifted and Black.”

We sit back and don't vote, believing the BS that voting really doesn't matter because most Americans watch, support and rely on Fox News for the truth.

Well, voting is like the lottery..you don't win if you don't play. They win because we choose not to play.

That simple, really.

So Happy Black History Month to those who celebrate February.

But don't blink..

Shirley Chisolm