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It's that time of year again and it's no secret that February is Black History Month. If you didn't know, now you do! From human rights activists, ingenious innovators, talented performers and so so much more, Black people have contributed more to our society than anyone could ever cover in 1 post. But if you're ready to learn something new, you're in the right place!
Hello!
And welcome back if you've been here before!
We talk a lot about TransTape here, naturally, but today is going to be a little bit different. Today, we're talking about Black History Month.
Why?
Well, for starters it's February. That's kind of February's thing. But also because it doesn't seem to be talked about enough. Many of us probably don't realize how many things in our everyday lives were invented by a Black person.
Things you don't think twice about like automatic elevator doors, potato chips, automatic gear shifts in cars, clothes dryers, traffic lights, THE super soaker, THE ice cream scoop, home security systems.
Need I go on? There's plenty more.
My point is, the majority of us probably had no idea that a Black person invented any of those things and that doesn't seem quite right. Now, does it?
But the perfect scoop of ice cream is most certainly not the pinnacle of Black contributions.
But still important for all ice cream enthusiasts, shout out to Alfred L. Cralle for the scoop.
Black people, more often than not, have been at the forefront of human rights activism ever since there has been a need for it.
So.
Forever.
From Civil Rights to Feminism to Gay Rights and the Stonewall Riots, Black people have always been on the front-lines of fighting for equality and that's something we should all be more aware of and talk about a lot more outside of February.
Kinda like this nice little chat we're having right now, except in all the other 11 months of the year that we have. There's always that one person who will ask, "why is there a black history month?" And I think most of us know what usually follows that statement.
We have a Black History Month because we are not taught, in more cases than not, Black history.
Like, at all. It's actually crazy.
Most public school history books and classes, in the US at least, will talk about slavery (but not the reality of it), Martin Luther King Jr, the legal ending of racial segregation (desegregation) and then they usually call it quits after that.
For example, did you know Ruby Bridges, the first Black girl to go to an all white school, is only 70 years young today?
And I'm not trying to act like I'm highly educated in Black history either, I'm not. I'm abso-lute-ly still learning and I've barely scraped the surface of how significant Black history is to the world. But I can be learning and still recognize that there are some serious gaps in our education system.
Among many other systems.
Did you know that Susie King Taylor (1848-1912) was considered to be the first Black teacher in America? She taught freed African-American slaves in a freedom school in Georgia.
Black history month has been around since 1976, where US presidents designated the month of February to Black history.
President Gerald Ford officially recognized Black History Month in 1976, calling upon the public to,“seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”
But back in September of 1915 (only 109 years ago) Harvard-trained historian Carter G. Woodson and the prominent minister Jesse E. Moorland founded what's now known as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), an organization dedicated to researching and promoting achievements by Black Americans and other peoples of African descent.
In 1926, following the establishment of ASALH, the organization sponsored a national celebration during the second week of February. This celebration set out to inspire colleges and communities, sparking performances, establishing clubs and encouraging all around celebration around Black identity.
By the late 1960s, Black history week was becoming Black history month on many college campuses across the nation, in part because of the civil rights movement. The celebration of Black history has been around longer than some people seem to believe.
It's not something new or trendy, it's very real and necessary.
I don't know about you, but I've learned a few things so far.
Such as, there is no history without Black history.
Educating ourselves on Black history is a vital part of breaking down and recognizing the very system attempting to erase it.
Black lives matter.
I would like to say again, I am by no means an expert on Black history.
Or literally any history for that matter.
But that doesn't mean I'm not capable of finding my own resources and educating myself.
Just like you're capable of doing!
Here is a quick pull from an article (RYAN: Marginalized groups are not here to educate you) that highlights this point with a great quote.
Audre Lorde once said, “Whenever the need for some pretense of communication arises, those who profit from our oppression call upon us to share our knowledge with them. In other words, it is the responsibility of the oppressed to teach the oppressors their mistakes. ... Women are expected to educate men. Lesbians and gay men are expected to educate the heterosexual world. The oppressors maintain their position and evade responsibility for their own actions.”
If you've never heard of Audre Lorde, I included a quick snippet and links to learn more about her and her life below. Spoiler, she's fantastic. But even though I'm no pro, I did come prepared with something else I think you should definitely know about.
Maybe take some notes and share them with a friend.
“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.”
I'm gonna admit, it wasn't until my first semester of college that I learned about who Audre Lorde was.
And wow, I love her.
She was, and still is, an absolute inspiration to so many people.
Rightfully so.
She self-described as, "black, lesbian, feminist, socialist, mother, warrior, poet."
At times as a young kid, Audre would recite poetry by memory to express how she felt and that carried into her adult life. She had the ability to express her emotions in ways that made people feel exactly how they needed to in order to understand.
From 1991 until her death in November of 1992, she was actually the New York State Poet laureate. The governor at the time referred to her writing as a, "language that can reach and touch people everywhere."
Her ability to do that throughout all forms of her writing helped unite people together for a greater cause and break down walls some people never even knew existed.
She believed that we weren't separated by our differences, but rather our refusal to acknowledge those differences.
"We speak not of human difference, but of human deviance."
There is so much more to Audre than her poetry though, especially her work with feminism, and you should definitely do some research of your own about her. In fact, you can click her name at the top of this section to go to her Wikipedia page.
Isn't that something?
But for now, here's one of her poems.
WW2, Active 1940-1948
The Tuskegee Airmen were so much more than a group of military fighter pilots.
They were the first Black military pilots, navigators, bombardiers, mechanics, instructors, crew chiefs, nurses, cooks, and other support personnel who were not only excellent at getting the job done, they also played a crucial role during the Civil Rights Movement.
The "Tuskegee" comes from where these exceptional pilots were trained, Tuskegee, Alabama, by the way.
And they were trained separately from white pilots, may I add. It wasn't until 1939 that African-Americans were "allowed" to become pilots. And because of the times, the military was still segregated and many service members were subject to Jim Crow Laws, which weren't entirely abolished until 1965 (only 60 years ago).
Despite blatant racism and countless hurdles, the educated and talented Tuskegee Airmen, also known as the "Red Tails" due to the painted rail tails of their airplanes, were some of the most highly trained pilots in the entire military. This is because, in many cases, the people training them wanted to find every excuse not to train them just because of the color of their skin.
Airman Coleman Young (Second Lieutenant), later the first African-American mayor of Detroit, told journalist Studs Terkel about the process:
"They made the standards so high, we actually became an elite group. We were screened and super-screened. We were unquestionably the brightest and most physically fit young blacks in the country. We were super-better because of the irrational laws of Jim Crow. You can't bring that many intelligent young people together and train 'em as fighting men and expect them to supinely roll over when you try to fuck over 'em, right? (Laughs)"
Compared to other fighter groups in WW2, the Tuskegee Airmen were the best, and that isn't an exaggeration. They continuously outperformed other groups by landslides.
In total the Tuskegee Airmen, or "Red Tails", flew 1578 combat missions and were awarded: 3 Distinguished Unit Citations, a Silver Star, 96 Distinguished Flying Crosses, 14 Bronze Stars, 744 Air Medals and 60 Purple Hearts.
However, their performance didn't protect them from racism.
In order to become an officer and/or pilot, these men were required to be educated and typically hold a degree before entering the military. And officers are often given privileges to special on-base clubs designed as a place for all officers to gather without other non-officers.
The Freeman Field Mutiny refers to a series of protests in Indiana because of exactly this.
The command referred to the Tuskegee Airmen as "trainees," even though these pilots had hundreds of hours in air and had completed many combat missions, therefore restricting their access to the base officer's club.
These protests resulted in over 100 arrests, 3 court martials, and an important step towards desegregation in the United States military.
There is no argument to be made that could discount the achievements of the Tuskegee Airmen, they knew what they were doing and deserve the recognition and respect for it.
Thurgood Marshall served as an associate justice on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1967-1991, was the first African-American to do so, and represented 100 of the Tuskegee Airmen in court after being arrested for "unlawfully" entering the officer's club in Indiana. This led to their release and a long, successful career for Marshall as a civil rights lawyer and justice in the United States.
That name might sound familiar and it could be from learning about Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. This case ruled that racial segregation in public schools is unconstitutional and paved the way for people like Ruby Bridges, who was mentioned earlier as the first African American child to attend a formerly "whites-only" school in Louisiana in 1960 (only 65 years ago)
There is so much information out there about Susie King Taylor, Audre Lorde, the Tuskegee Airmen, Thurgood Marshall, and Ruby Bridges and I highly recommend doing some reading about them.
Did you learn anything new from reading this?
I hope you did.
Learning about Black history shouldn't end with reading this post or any one post during the month of February once a year. And really, we should never stop learning about Black history because it's still being written every single day.
Like I said in the beginning, it's pretty unlikely that someone could cover all of Black people's contributions to society in one post and I'm also NOT an expert at Black history.
It is our own responsibility to educate ourselves on other people's identities, and we should never expect that information to be freely offered to us.
The oppressed should never have to explain their oppression, yet that seems to always be happening. And that's not right.
We should all, myself included, take more time out of our days to learn and understand all of the wonderful people that exist all around us. Understanding one another's experience in the world is the first, and most crucial, step to true liberation.
There's so much information out there, you just have to be willing to search for it.
The more we understand each other, the happier we are.
And the happier we are, the better the world.
So be the change that you want to see in this world.
You beautifully complex human, you.
Until next time,
Stay awesome,
Stay beautiful,
Stay you.
You are loved and it gets better.
Talk to you soon,
Jamie
My name is Jamie and I'm a young (ish) transman born and raised in the Hudson Valley of New York state. I started my transition in May of 2017 and since then, I've made it my mission to live unapologetically as myself and spread awareness through my pursuit of happiness. I am the creator and writer of Spilling T blog, a proud affiliate of TransTape and when I'm not outside with the best dog ever or hanging out with my two cats, I make and sell my own beard care products through Buckaroo's Beard Care. I'm always looking for my next adventure and have been skydiving, road-tripping, hiking in the mountains and even served for a short time in the United States Marine Corps. My life has had its fair share of twists and turns and I hope to use those experiences to create helpful and relatable content that may help someone else navigate a difficult time in life.
Beards, Socials, Tape and Writing
Use code FINALLYME10 and Find Your Freedom with TransTape!
https://linktr.ee/jamieakajames
