Are America’s Youth Disinterested in Learning History?

A few weeks ago, at my job at a summer camp at a Philadelphia rec center, I overheard a conversation that, word to Krs-One, still has me thinking very deeply. The conversation was with a bunch of my male African American coworkers who are mostly high school students. None of them are older than the age of sixteen.

The discussion was about how one of the workers was unfamiliar with the writings of the renowned writer, Maya Angelou. In fact, he claimed to have never even heard of her. The other workers were stunned by the young man’s ignorance. After all, Ms Angelou is one of the most highly regarded figures of not only African American culture, but also of American culture as a whole.

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Posted by:

Marvin DeBose Jr

Obama’s Deal: How Obama Won Health Care

Check out this interesting documentary from Frontline about the Obama administration’s effort to win health care. It’s a lil sappy, but it’s really eye opening.

Posted by:

The Editor

Black History (from a Latino Perspective)

As January moves over to make way for February, we get ready for Black History Month. You know, McDonald’s “365” commercials, jokes about black people getting the shortest month of the year, factoids about George Washington Carver and pictures of Harriet Tubman appearing on the walls of elementary schools, and reminders that we shall not simply delegate this celebration to one month. We’ve seen and heard these images, phrases and American cultural attachés to the point where the month becomes a cliché, a corporate slogan, even unnecessary in the supposed “post racial age” of Obama.

jacked via Joe Maldonado's Facebook page

Let me try to take it from a different angle.

What does black history mean to me? This is not one of those essays that says “Black History is American History”, though we are all deeply interconnected. This is also not a tribute piece to African American historical figures gave me hope and inspiration, though they did.

Let me attempt to explain and expand “Black” History Month from a Latino perspective.

More after the jump.

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Posted by:

The Editor