This is what I am currently reading. I decided to blog about it because it is imperative that everyone study this book. True history is depicted here that helped validate my feelings about the way the past has been chronicled in American history textbooks. I never could keep from being easily distracted because it was so boring & incomplete. Well, this is one important work of history that has some of the omissions of black history in it. Reading this book will definitely help you see the correlation between the past & the present. It is a must-read!
As a child who was ordered to sit down during the pledge of allegiance to the flag, I understand Josh Howard's comments. It has to do with the residual anger that comes from having enslaved ancestors. Do people live in the twilight zone or what? You know what I think it is? I think that americans are in a state of denial when it comes to reality. We know why he does not care for the national anthem as black people. It has nothing to do with being unpatriotic either. It is the mistreatment of blacks that has persisted to this day. But it makes no sense to make belligerent outbursts like that.
African-Americans helped build this country along with everyone else. It hurts to have no claim to any land even if you descend from the founding nationalities. The Indians who were on this land when it was pioneered. The Europeans who settled it. The Africans who slaved over the cotton & tobacco fields of America. I am an african-american with pictures of three generations of my maternal grandmothers in it. They all were Chickasaw. Do I receive any compensation as the descendant of an american indian tribe? No! They make it too difficult for you to do so. There is so much bureaucracy involved that I have decided not to bother. I know very little about my family history which used to anger me. But from what I can discern in family pictures there is european in my bloodstream as well. I don't know the story behind that but it's there. Of course, I have no idea which part of West Africa my ancestors originated from. It is a mystery that I am trying to undertake. First, I have to go to Mississippi to do that & get to know my relatives.
Sadly, all the africans I have met are distant & seem to want no part of me. I have dated quite a few men from Nigeria & other parts of Africa. There is disdain & disgust in their conversations with me about blacks in America. One guy told me that we are ,for the most part, underachievers. I felt like he thought I was lower than him because I am black & not african. It was disappointing & it made me angry. I wanted to rediscover my african roots. What is my true culture? As an african-american, our culture had to be recreated. Although I look african, I am not accepted by them because I have no tribal connections. Where do I go when I go to the land of my ancestry? I don't know my ancestry which has hindered me in school projects & in life period. Why is it so hard for me to build my family tree? It's because America was not the land of the free. It was the land of the defeated. The home of the slave.
The national anthem does not have the lyrics that every american can identify with. Specifically "the land of the free" because of the history of slavery. Those words are still like a slap in the face. Remember, we were likened to cattle. Blacks were possessions in the minds of many americans. Heathens who needed to be enslaved. Blacks weren't the "we" hailed at the twilight's last gleaming". That song was made by & for white countrymen. There was a lot of literature out there saying that we were less than human. It is painful for african-americans to this very day.
That is the reason Josh Howard said "Fuck that, I ain't singin' that". He feels like blacks can reject a song that was never intended for them anyway. Maybe he's feeling a little cocky because we finally have a black presidential candidate. Who knows? The point is blacks were not free so who is this patriotic song directed to? Not all americans because blacks didn't count, remember? This kind of attitude hearkens back to the not so distant civil rights movement & black power era. It's hard to call someone un-patriotic when you know the history of America. Josh Howard does not seem like he has much black pride though. He seemed like he was just trying to be provocative & illicit anger. I do not think he is trying to be the next civil rights leader. But I like that he supports Barack Obama.
