Let's Decolonize Black History

By W. F. Twyman, Jr.

Let’s decolonize Black History.

Decolonization seems to be all the rage today, at least in some circles. Some view decolonization as a racial equity tool. Decolonization as a Racial Equity Tool. Others see decolonization as the process of undoing colonization, the domination of imperial nations over subjugated nations. Decolonization And still others perceive decolonization as a way of being, of centering in an indigenous framework. Decolonization in Everyday Life

I am not sure any group should be “centered” in everyday life. Quite honestly, I consider it a good day if I can find peace at the center, my center. How could I possibly know the center for millions of any racial group? And besides, we are individuals before we are avatars for a group.

The idea to decolonize Black History came to me this morning after watching a podcast of Malcom and Simone Collins. They are young parents who bring a whole new meaning to the label “quirky.” I have a soft spot for non-conformers, so when Malcom suggested the need to decolonize real life from the urban monoculture, I immediately sensed the parallels with Black History. Malcolm and Simone in the Morning

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Before Black History was colonized by the Far Left and Radicals, my conception of Black History was indigenous. What do I mean when I use the term “indigenous?” I mean my perception of Black History was organic and home grown. There were no outside colonial forces that supplanted my natural experience. Before college and if you had asked me to list five meanings of Black History in my lived experience, I might have listed the following:

1. Ebenezer African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) church, a family church since the 1870s up on the hill and across the railroad tracks.

2. Twyman Road, where everyone was family and black and enterprising

3. Black Enterprise Magazine, a chronicler of the best in aim and aspiration

4. Uncle James Scott Twyman, a man my Mom and family members idolized as a role model of enterprise

5. Public School Desegregation in the fall of 1969 and throughout the 1970s.

   What happened to the Black History that was indigenous to me and my people? We were colonized in the 1960s and the 1970s by a foreign invading colonial mindset, Black Studies. I am going to quote at length from Wikipedia since, for once, Wikipedia nicely relays the intellectual displacement of Black History with Black Studies:

   “Programs and departments of Black studies in the United States were first created in the 1960s and 1970s as a result of inter-ethnic student and faculty activism at many universities, sparked by a five-month strike for Black studies at San Francisco State University. In February 1968, San Francisco State hired sociologist Nathan Hare to coordinate the first Black studies program and write a proposal for the first Department of Black Studies; the department was created in September 1968 and gained official status at the end of the five-month strike in the spring of 1969. Hare's views reflected those of the black power movement, and he believed that the department should empower Black students. The creation of programs and departments in Black studies was a common demand of protests and sit ins by minority students and their allies…”

This activist mindset was not an organic way of being a black American in my experience. Religion was swapped out for activism. Just this evening, a family member excitedly texted the family “I’m officially signed up to attend/participate in 1 of the May Day action events.” A thumbs up icon was followed by a clenched muscle. The person is shackled and chained to activism as a way of being. Thanks a lot, Black Studies. Enterprise became denigrated as the white’s man’s culture. Check out the White Culture chart for the National Museum of African American History and Culture, if you do not believe me. White Culture Chart Removed The clear inference — Black people as inferior. Berry Gordy, Percy Sutton and Reginald Lewis were forgotten in lieu of Ta-Nehisi Coates and Ibram X. Kendi as men worthy of emulation. What happened to whispered respect for the entrepreneurial uncle as opposed to convicted felons? Why are there zero remembrances of the tremendous courage found in the hearts of blacks and whites who created new traditions in the 1970s South? One will read about slaves in the 1619 Project but not 1979 veterans of public school integration throughout the South.

What happened to Black History indigenous to ordinary black Americans in southern suburbs and small-towns? Our organic history was colonized by eternal radicals and scholars of resentment. Black History became Oppression. Nothing Else Matters. I lack the time, or desire, to analyze in detail the colonialization of Black History by Black Studies. If you are interested, review the Wikipedia entry for Black Studies and ask yourself these questions. Is racism rampant in the land today? Does the full-bore emphasis on Black Identity seem unbalanced? How does one make it in a 99.5% non-Black American world if one majors in Black Studies?

I would suggest Black History has been fully colonized by Black Studies. A quick search of Harvard University Press and Black Studies turns up notable tomes such as Fugitive Pedagogy (I guess we’re still on the run from Massa’), Traveling Black (take me back to the 1950s, please), The Legacy of Slavery at Harvard (planting the seed for reparations, non?), Being Property Once Myself (I swear some of these authors need a slavery blocker), and To Live and Defy in LA: How Gangsta Changed Rap Changed America (a far cry from Publisher John Johnson of Ebony Magazine as inspiration).

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If we conclude Black History has been colonized by Black Studies, what is to be done? We should take our cues from the decolonization movement across the border every day in Canada.

Let’s center indigenous black voices from middle America. If there are over 40 million black Americans, there are over 40 million stories, experiences and perspectives. Perhaps 24% of people who self-identity as black Americans consider Black Studies “extra.” Like how does consuming a 100 percent diet of pessimism, gloom and doom help one to survive the first year at Goldman Sachs as an analyst? To make it as a young associate at Cravath, Swaine and Moore? To succeed as a math teacher at the private school? To internalize that it is not about Blackness if your son acts up in his private school class? It is about your son, not systemic racism.

There are people who have common sense and view Black Studies with a snake eye. Center those voices.

Second, apply a critical lens to Black Studies. Beware of branding games like “Liberated Ethnic Studies” or “Africana Studies.” Anyone who plays a branding game with labels is trying to manipulate you. They are not to be trusted. Ask questions. Be critical. That seems to be the way of decolonization.

Third, achieve sovereignty. Achieving sovereignty means self-reliance, an internal locus of control. Take your cues from within, not words of manipulation from without.

Fourth, challenge the colonial system. Ask why must we jettison positive stories in Black History. Why must we forget hundreds of pioneer black lawyers? Why do we never learn about the pivotal decade of the 1970s in the South? Why do we ignore the seminal role of black enterprise in Black History? By asking questions, one challenges the colonial system of Black Studies. One starts the decolonization process in earnest.

Finally, incorporate decolonization into your everyday life. “By engaging with those around you, friends, family, and loved ones, in conversations about the society that we live in and what it truly means to live in “(Black History)”, decolonization could be occurring. These conversations … ultimately challenge the colonial narrative we are fed from the moment we are born.” Fortunately, I was born before Black Studies but many were not. We who lived through American history now forgotten have a duty to remember, to pen essays, to give voice to our classroom experiences during a time of racial transition in the 1970s.

To further appropriate from the decolonization movement up North, “(w)e must work to move away from white settler logics, systems of knowing and narratives, and towards respectful and accountable ways of being in relation with one another.” Black History will take us there.

Otherwise, Black Studies will continue the low spiral of inferiority and low self-esteem. Black Studies creates a collective consciousness of what it means to be black. Time to decolonize.

Brother, Can You Spare A Slavery Blocker