THE UNFORTUNATE EXCLUSIVITY OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH

by John Stringer | Mar 1, 2010 | Development, Personal

Image by The Library of Congress via Flickr

I am healing, correcting the false dichotomies I once accepted as REAL and that’s why THIS became an issue for me last month.  By “this,”  I mean the unfortunate exclusivity of  Black History Month (February) in America.  So I begin…

I am Black, Negro, Colored, Nigger,
Coon, Blackie, Indian, Red Man, Ingine, Whitey, Cracker, Honkey and many other social constructs, according to the “world” of human classifications.  For I have been told my ancestors are Nigerian, Cherokee, Choctaw, Irish and who knows what else…
But I believe… no… I AM greater than all of these classifications,
As are YOU.
African-American is one term to “describe” or classify me
but it is not nearly the sum of who I TRULY am.  And who and what I AM is something I am waking up to more and more finding it is beyond any limited definition I once accepted.

I accept African-American – the construct – as a limitation in describing my true essence, my IDENTITY – for as a classification that “we” have simply made up, it does not do me justice!  HA!

BLACK HISTORY
it is a segment of MY-story, his-story, her-story
it is a segment of YOUR-story
for it is part of the HUMAN-story
and all of humanity is intertwined.
YOUR story is MY story
We are One Humanity
and anything that limits our nature is simply a construct, an illusion
and though “this” construct may have some function
it is subject to all sorts of “threats” because it is limited
and only that which is real is limitless – cannot be threatened, cannot be destroyed

I choose to celebrate BLACK, WHITE, RED, YELLOW & all other STORIES  daily as the Human-Story through giving thanks for my existence and living life to the fullest.  For my existence and participation in living life fully honors all of existence, as does yours.