Celebrating Change in the African-American Community

It truly amazes me when I hear folk in my community, the African-American community, the community here in New Hanover county in which I grew up, say that nothing has changed. As a matter of fact, I currently live in the very community and house that I grew up in. Wow, some things have changed. We all now have hot and cold running water in the homes and we no longer have to go outside to use the toilet as was the case when I was a child. Perhaps I’m missing something, but am I not living in a time that my grandparents and in many cases my parents dreamed of. I can remember when getting a job as a maid or cook in the public school system was considered a good job, well at least in the community that I grew up in it was.

Now, it is not my position that all is well and we no longer have any outstanding issues or that we should just be satisfied with our lot in life or the status of our people. Without a doubt, I believe that we should never stop dreaming for a better future, a better tomorrow. It just seems strange to me that so many people can only find that which is wrong without giving any credence to that which is right and good. I find it to be a very unsettling statement when I hear folk say that nothing has changed.

This year, I will be celebrating my 50^th birthday and as I mentioned earlier, I grew up here in New Hanover County and attended and graduated from the public school system here. Admittedly, I was very young during the tumultuous sixties when many riots and the burning of buildings was regular fare on our one black and white television set with which we only received two channels. (WWAY and WECT) As I remember it, things were very different back then.

I remember when an African American came on the television, it would be announced by whoever noticed it first, “hey, one of us is on television“, and whatever was being done would be interrupted, and we would all gather around the television to witness our current hero on television. We were so happy to see someone that looked like us on television and we were so pleased with the way the champions of our cause would carry themselves as they represented us. I mean, who can forget Sammy Davis Jr., James Brown, or Bill Cosby in I Spy. Today, my people, black people are all over the television, not just in the news, but in movies, television shows and even anchoring the news. This is change and it is good change and it should be celebrated before and with our children. In this way, we can insure that the light of hope for the future will not grow dim in their eyes.