I think I need to avoid social media on holidays y’all. Seriously. My people (that would be African-Americans) slay me with their criticisms and beatnik moments on holidays. I have several “friends” who posted criticism about Black people celebrating St. Patrick’s Day yesterday. Things like Black people wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day is silly or Black people wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day but they don’t do anything during Black History month or Ask White people to wear a dashiki and a Kiss me I’m African-American button on Juneteenth and see if they’ll do it.
Lemme say this. I wore a pin yesterday that was green and in the shape of a leprechaun’s hat. If I had a green top or outfit I would have worn that. You know why? Because it’s fun. Plain and simple. I’m not mocking the Irish culture when I do it. I’m recognizing it. What is so wrong with that? Wearing green or drinking green beer doesn’t make you some kind of race turncoat. And it certainly doesn’t mean that you don’t have pride in your own culture. I’m not suggesting that Black people wear a ‘Kiss me I’m Irish’ shirt unless they really are. But donning green on March 17th isn’t the worse thing ever. Does every holiday have to turn into a political debate? Some folks do the most I tell ya.
These critics are a mess. They criticize every holiday and demean Blacks who buy into it. These are the same people who get mad when we celebrate Valentine’s Day (that’s a Hallmark holiday), 4th of July (Black people in America weren’t free in 1776), Columbus Day (he was a fraud-I agree with them on this one though), Christmas (Jesus wasn’t born that day. Christianity wasn’t in your heritage), etc, etc, etc. Even Martin Luther King Jr. Day gets mocked because he was a peaceful protestor (why don’t we celebrate Malcolm X or Marcus Garvey?) If it were up to my critic friends, Black people would only celebrate three holidays a year including Kwanzaa by reading history books and holding vigils. Where the hell are these loud mouths on election day? Why aren’t they shutting down Black people who circulate fight videos on social media? I’ll wait. *tick tock tick tock tick tock*
I get their point and agree that we should bump up the hype around certain days the way Irish people hype up St. Patrick’s Day. Holidays should reflect the rich, diverse history of our country. We absolutely need to set aside more days to recognize significant Black and Brown people and events from their culture that have helped shape American and world history. I get it. I get it. I GET IT!!! Now lighten up. Nothing precludes us from celebrating our culture every day. African-Americans are unique, amazing, accomplished, vivid, and most of all contributive. I’ll celebrate that right now with a cup of Black coffee. *fist pump*
