Doctor Grandma

On a hot, summer night in mid-July,

sun sinks below horizon of a pink and orange-lit sky,

and I run, catching fireflies.

Bright yellow dots blink and blink

against the darkening,

I like to see how many fit in my hand

without squishing them,

Street lights tell me,”Go home! Go home!”

I run to catch some more, and then,

just before my mother calls, I open the lid to my jar,

As they come out, I say “Good-bye!”

to each and every one.

cfblack 6-26-2021

Family history fact for the day.

In 1870, the man named James Agnew who was my GGGrandpa lived in Montgomery, Ohio (still a part of Hamilton County as is Cincinnati), owned 85 acres of farmed land and 22 acres of woodland. The land was worth $6000, he paid out $100 in wages that year, owned 4 horses, 5 cows, 16 pigs, farmed 50 bushels of winter wheat, 12 of rye, 25 of Indian corn and 130 of oats.

I miss Ruth Ginsburg,

want her to return,

take this nightmare of a freak show away.

Let’s go out for coffee,

talk about old times,

like the winning of Roe v Wade,

like how women have fought for every right they have,

and may not have tomorrow,

like their educations,

or like voting,

or entering a library on their own,

or having babies in the way they want to,

or the right to live alone,

Let’s talk about doctors who told me not

to breastfeed for too long,

or told my mother to take the drugs

so she didn’t know

when her babies were born,

Let’s talk about slithering snakes,

about comments made by politicians

how women don’t get pregnant from rape

or like how they really enjoy it.

Because I’ve had just about enough of this.

I want to look forward, not back,

and I don’t know how much energy I have left

for another fighting round.

cfblack, 10-15-2020

The topic of RACE. Last Sunday, I read some quotes from a lovely power point someone else made, with my grandkids in Raleigh. The images were positive images of black and brown people, people of color, African Americans. I want to post something each Sunday night. This week, my son, Jamal Black and I had a discussion about race. I asked him how many NFL coaches are African American this year, as I ask my students this every year. We came up with 3, how many do you find? One was Brian Flores. Do you agree? I’ll post his picture. My response to my son was, “He’s Hispanic. His parents were from Honduras. Central America.” My son said, “He’s black. What else would you call him?” This got me to thinking in a different way about race than ever before. And I teach about it! Brian Flores is Black. But Hispanic. Is he African American? I don’t know. Probably his parental ancestry leads back to Africa. From Honduras. Most of the African slave trade went straight west— to Brazil and Central America. Only 6% of it came up here this far north. Brazil is the country in the world with the largest population of people of African descent– outside of the continent of Africa. HOWEVER, here’s the funny thing. We have “Asian” as a racial category in America; it’s based on geography. We have “Native Hawaiian and Pacific islander” based on geography (of ancestors). People of European descent or Japanese descent living in Hawaii would be “WHITE’ or “ASIAN” in the 48 states. OKAY, what else do we have? “Native American or Indian”. What is that based on? Many different tribes with different cultures all lumped together into “Native”. Because they were here first. Kind of based on geography. What else? Biracial? They can check more than one box since 2010 but they are not a racial category. Hispanic?? Hispanic? No. the U.S. government says “That is not a race. It is a cultural identity, not race.” That is interesting. We all have a cultural identity. African Americans are proud of their cultural heritage. White people have a culture, for sure, and people of color can state what it is. Not usually white people (We are not used to talking about that). Anyway. Sure, whites are more comfortable breaking it down into ethnicity. We are German American (largest white ethnic group in the US). Irish (2nd largest). Dutch, Italian, Polish, Norwegian… that’s ethnicity. Our racial categories currently are: Black /White/Asian/Native American/native Hawaiian or Islander. So is Brian Flores Black? By American judgments, yes. But he is Honduran Hispanic also. Are the other groups based on color? Culture? geography? How about Ron Rivera, another NFL coach? His father is Puerto Rican. Hispanic. U.S. citizen. His wife is Mexican. Wikipedia doesn’t mention what his mother is so she is probably white. Ron Rivera– is he black? brown? or just Hispanic. So what is race?