Tara Bynum: The African-American Story is Not Just Activism and Resistance
[Tara Bynum is an assistant professor of English at Towson University in Baltimore, MD]
It’s Black History Month yet again. With several years of university teaching under my belt, I’ve begun to wonder what black history my students have actually learned during this month or any month before entering college. It’s clear the students know a version of black history that moves rather quickly from slavery to Reconstruction to the Civil Rights Movement to the election of Barack Obama....
After numerous classroom discussions, I’ve come to understand that though this “real” history is important, it overshadows the moments where resistance and activism are not obvious concerns. There is a black history that exists outside of the “real” story. Here, I am reminded of 18th century poet, Phillis Wheatley whose poems possess no apparent literary activism. Her well-formed elegies barely discuss slavery and certainly do not seem to oppose its practice. Before we place her outside of black history or chastise her lack of racial consciousness, we must recognize that Wheatley may offer an alternative story. Let’s assume that Wheatley’s intention was not to inaugurate this “real” history. Let’s concede that Wheatley does not keep real the narrative of struggle and resistance that has become synonymous with blackness....
these words—resistance, survival, and complacency—limit black history and deny the varied way in which black people have contributed to this history. Instead of resistance, let’s heed Ralph Ellison’s charge to pursue that which he could only describe as the “something else” of black life. Let’s document not only the moments when we actively struggled but also those times when we lived everyday lives. It should be the living that we celebrate this month because it’s through the living that we make and change history.
Read entire article at The Root
It’s Black History Month yet again. With several years of university teaching under my belt, I’ve begun to wonder what black history my students have actually learned during this month or any month before entering college. It’s clear the students know a version of black history that moves rather quickly from slavery to Reconstruction to the Civil Rights Movement to the election of Barack Obama....
After numerous classroom discussions, I’ve come to understand that though this “real” history is important, it overshadows the moments where resistance and activism are not obvious concerns. There is a black history that exists outside of the “real” story. Here, I am reminded of 18th century poet, Phillis Wheatley whose poems possess no apparent literary activism. Her well-formed elegies barely discuss slavery and certainly do not seem to oppose its practice. Before we place her outside of black history or chastise her lack of racial consciousness, we must recognize that Wheatley may offer an alternative story. Let’s assume that Wheatley’s intention was not to inaugurate this “real” history. Let’s concede that Wheatley does not keep real the narrative of struggle and resistance that has become synonymous with blackness....
these words—resistance, survival, and complacency—limit black history and deny the varied way in which black people have contributed to this history. Instead of resistance, let’s heed Ralph Ellison’s charge to pursue that which he could only describe as the “something else” of black life. Let’s document not only the moments when we actively struggled but also those times when we lived everyday lives. It should be the living that we celebrate this month because it’s through the living that we make and change history.