Black History Month

I am so ashamed that it's the 2nd of February and I'm just now posting about this. I will explain my negligence in a later post, but before I go any further, I feel it necessary to acknowledge February as Black History Month.

All month long, I plan to educate my clients (as part of their curriculum) about various African American role models and racist atrocities that still take place in the 21st Century. Part of the education may simply be a poem or a short story that I read at opening/check-in. I also plan to incorporate some information about racism, stigma, and prejudice as part of their rehabilitation. Recovery includes integration back into the community that once shunned you or you withdrew from because of substance use.

Some of the material I discuss with them will be shared here.

*Note to my readers: I do not, under any circumstances, condone using the "N" word. It is a hateful word used to segregate and degrade. I will, however, discuss the "career" of such a hateful word in a later post. But as a preview- believe it or not, when used by Blacks, the word loses it's power- an interesting discussion for later this month. So stay tuned.

Here is a poem, which profoundly affects me every time I read it:

The Incident (1925)

Once riding in old Baltimore,
Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,
I saw a Baltimorean
Keep looking straight at me.
Now I was eight and very small,
And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
His tongue, and called me, "Nigger."
I saw the whole of Baltimore
From May until December;
Of all the things that happened there
That's all that I remember.

-Countee Cullen