{"id":15762,"date":"2021-02-11T20:35:15","date_gmt":"2021-02-12T02:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/?p=15762"},"modified":"2021-02-19T07:59:44","modified_gmt":"2021-02-19T13:59:44","slug":"state-of-the-bsa-lets-celebrate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/2021\/02\/11\/state-of-the-bsa-lets-celebrate\/","title":{"rendered":"State of the BSA \u2014 Let\u2019s celebrate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Written by Namon Pope.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m always conflicted when Black History Month comes around. Of course I love learning and talking about the achievements made by Black people, but I wish that it were commonplace for us to talk about them all year long and not just during the shortest month of the year. The very fact that we have a Black History Month tends to put the idea in our minds that we should only recognize the contributions of Black Americans at one specific time of the year. There\u2019s always the feeling that we\u2019ll talk about Harriet Tubman and Martin Luther King Jr. for 28 days (or 29 if we\u2019re lucky), and then our quota is filled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The year 2020 was one of the loneliest years that many of us have ever experienced. The deaths of brothers and sisters like Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, and the injustices committed against those like Jacob Blake, left many Black Americans looking for support. I found myself thinking, \u201cMy White friends have told me that they love me, but if it were me or my family on the news, would they fight for me?\u201d That\u2019s not a good place to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After all the grief, pain and loneliness of 2020, we all deserve a chance to breathe and be joyful. Instead of going down the path of racial reconciliation by only talking about how much of a burden being Black in America can be, we have to balance that by appreciating the beauty that is present within Black men and women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until the day comes that Black history is celebrated all year round by all people, we can either choose to be upset about the limited time we have, or to take advantage of it as best we can. So instead of complaining this month, I\u2019m choosing to celebrate to the fullest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you ask me, there is so much about Black culture that deserves celebration \u2014 the hairstyles, fashion, art, worship styles and so much more \u2014 and it all has its origins in Black history. So, when we celebrate these aspects of the culture, we are celebrating the history behind them as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This month, you\u2019ll see the Black Student Association working to highlight Black culture and history right here on Harding\u2019s campus. We\u2019ve partnered with the University to film videos that will show how students are making history and bringing Black culture to new parts of campus, and we\u2019re organizing an event at the end of the month to showcase various types of Black art. But the celebration of Black culture and history won\u2019t stop in February \u2014 we\u2019ll be celebrating all semester long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Black History Month isn\u2019t perfect. In fact, it\u2019s not even the goal. Ideally, we would teach and talk about Black history \u2014 as well as the history of every other group that has made this country what it is today \u2014 in the same way we teach and talk about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. But until that day comes, we celebrate February\u2019s arrival as best we can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those who don\u2019t know much about Black history beyond MLK and Rosa Parks, I would encourage you to dig deeper this month and learn some things you didn\u2019t know before. Do your best to be curious about the world and try to understand why things are the way they are. Read a book. Watch a movie. Read an article or two. Talk to a friend about their family\u2019s history and compare it with your own experience. And for those who are a part of the culture and history, let\u2019s celebrate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Namon Pope. I\u2019m always conflicted when Black History Month comes around. Of course I love learning and talking about the achievements made by Black people, but I wish…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15068,"featured_media":15788,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15068"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15762"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15763,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15762\/revisions\/15763"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}