The Message: Yes, Y’all This IS America
Yes, I am a nerd.
Many nerds never outgrow some lessons from their childhood. Like, I know that whenever a test is handed out many in the class will try to do everything in their power to resist the test. As soon as the paper would hit their desks, they would look the test over and declare that it isn’t fair.
“You didn’t tell us this would be on the test.”
I have always sat quietly while others complained that the teacher/professor never told us certain information. Of course, they usually did. They just didn’t cover the information in their lecture.
Nevertheless, usually you’re told that you are responsible for knowing the information anyway. It can come from anything in the assigned text reading.
If they couldn’t stop the test, they try to impact the grades.
“Will you be grading on a curve?”, they would ask.
“I’m sorry, but some of your classmates actually studied. In fact, two of them got an A.”
Now see, this is why veteran nerds know to put your graded test away as soon as possible. The teacher may hide your identity but the class private investigators want to know, “Who got an A?”
Present Day
Ever since November 2016 I have been reading and hearing people say:
“I don’t recognize America. America was never like this. This isn’t who we are.”
For the most part I have been in nerd mode about the “this isn’t America” declarations. I’ve said things, but my volume has been low. However, it is getting out of hand now and certain things must be said.
America did not change her identity recently. The racism, sexism, and ableism have always been here. The lack of concern for the elderly and poor and the intolerance for others has been here since Christopher Columbus found people living their best life here on this soil.
If America suddenly looks unfamiliar to ‘you’ and people who look like you; then the question is: Where have YOU been all your life?
This country doesn’t look unfamiliar to ANY of my Black elder kin and family.
“Yep, this IS definitely America,” they say.
They can even back it up with a tale about something similar that happened in their lifetime to them or someone that they loved. As a matter fact, I have heard about this America since I was a kid trying to stay quiet so I could hear “grown folk conversation.”
For every time that I get tearful about a young Black man or woman shot down in the street, they can tell me about a young person being killed. Then they tell you about the sequel to that loss of life and violence. Violence in America always has a sequel, I’ve heard.
THIS is America.
When I hear people say, “This isn’t America”, I know-no matter what their background-they don’t pay attention to the lyrics of early Hip Hop. The early period of hip hop, lovingly referred to as “Old Skool Hip Hop” by fans,told true stories about America in heavy rotation.
Old Skool Hip Hop invited everyone to listen to whom America is every single day. One of the earliest hip hop anthems was called “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. Treat yourself to a listen if you haven’t heard it or only danced to the beat.
Who America is has never been a secret. Yes, she is ‘America the Beautiful’ and ‘My Country Tis of Thee’ to me too. But, she is not without her flaws.
Both her beauty and her flaws have been exposed in memoirs, novels, poems and literature by her own people. From the slave narratives going back to the 1700s, to the Harlem Renaissance, to the Black Feminist Movement dating back to the 1800s, to the Civil Rights Movement, to the emergence of hip hop, and seconds ago on a social media platform near you. She has been the feature of art, television, theater, and the few films featuring a Black cast, director, and writer that actually made it to the screens.
Black people have kept it real with y’all about who she is. We have yelled it, whispered it, sang it in notes and harmonies you never heard before, cursed it, and set it to beats and rhymes. Music artists even remixed it for you so you could dance to it.
But, when I think about it, it isn’t only that people are “shocked” at America’s recent behavior. And, not everyone is “shocked” to hear who America is. Too many people are shocked that she would do THEM like this.
You should have gotten to know her better.
Because, yes y’all, this is America.
THIS is America. This IS America. This is AMERICA.
This IS America, continuing to be America.
The shame is that America hasn’t changed as much as she must. When you listen to the legendary hip-hop anthem, The Message, is even more true today than the day it hit the streets in 1982. Will America still be singing the same song in another 40 years?
