Tag Archives: Africa

18

Sep. ’22

The Borinqueneers

I just returned from a week in Puerto Rico, just ahead of the hurricane/tropical storm. My wife and I go there often and have been to most of the other major islands. However, after watching a segment of history about Puerto Rico on a morning talk show, I thought about I have never heard about Puerto Rican military people when I was in the military nor read about them in history books. It was as if, like Black military people and Native Americans, they never existed. I did some research, and it did not take long to find a lot of information.

               Like Black people, Hispanic people volunteered for military service and was delegated to segregated units. During WWI they formed the 65th Infantry Regiment and served as the U.S. military’s last segregated unit composed primarily of Hispanic Soldiers. This have echoes of Black soldiers in the military. These soldiers are known as Borinqueneers.

               There is a short piece in the history pages that I found, and it say ‘shortly after Puerto Rico became part of the United States in 1898, a regiment of Puerto Rican Soldiers was formed, and they served our nation bravely ever since. In World War I, they defended the homeland and patrolled the Panama Canal Zone. In World War II, they fought in Europe. In Korea, they fought in mud and snow. They are the 65th Infantry Regime, U.S. Army. They are also known as Borinqueneers’. The nickname ‘Borinqueneers’ originated from the Borinquen – one of the native Taino Indian names for the island of Puerto Rico.

               One interesting fact is that two hundred Hispanic women joined the military and was given the job as code talkers, just like the Native Americans. Now that I have a taste of Hispanic history, I will delve more into it because I know there is much more to discover. Like all the other ethnic groups of people, the Hispanics have done well in many things for the United States including doing better than average in the military. Also, like other ethnic groups in the military, the Hispanics were short changed when it came to receiving medals. When ex-President Obama was in office, he gave out a record twenty-four Medal of Honor at one award ceremony.

               Although Puerto Rico is a possession of the USA, they have trouble getting USA support when there is a disaster, need of an influx of money for infrastructure upgrades, and so forth. I really love that island and would love to live there if the hurricanes would skip the place. The island is usually in the path of most hurricanes that leave the coast of Africa. And, while I was there, the news said there were earthquakes on the east coast of the island. I didn’t feel them.

               I invite all of you to join me and dig deeper into Hispanic history (music also), especially the Borinqueneers. These people are as interesting as the Tuskegee Airmen and others. Mexico is not the only place for Hispanics, but most people only think of Mexico and southward as the only Hispanics. Duh, not so. Look at Puerto Rico and other places. Huum, I have to do more traveling. By the way, HAPPY HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH!!

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14

Feb. ’21

Black History

This is Black History Month and I have been thinking a lot about who I would write about and could not make up my mind. Everywhere a person looks there is something about someone that need to be recognized this month. Then the more I thought about it the more I wanted to beat myself up because the answer is all around me.

               I have an article in Albemarle Tradewinds Magazine (www.albemarletradewinds.com) normally giving the bio of old Black jazz artists (I am usually next to the last page), occasionally I write about someone other than a jazz artist when the editor/owner ask. Therefore, what I am saying is every month I write about a Black person that overcame the odds against making it in the United States of America. Why, you may want to ask me, do I say in the United States of America? My answer is many talented Black people moved to another country and had a better life. Some left the United States and was given the opportunity that was denied them and succeeded. Some of the jazz artists I wrote about lived in other countries for the peace and tranquility they could not have at home.

               It is unfair that a month must be dedicated to have people think about and know Black people that have contributed to and made possible the well being of all. People only think of recent times; however, Black people have contributed for a few thousand years. Using only one fact…Blacks built the Pyramids, the stones are so close a piece of paper cannot slide between them (by the way, the Pharaohs were Black).

               The great majority of people know that Socrates and Plato were well educated and as they taught others, great knowledge was passed on. What is seldom known or told is they were taught in the schools and library in Alexandria Egypt (the library is still there). Most rich people of European countries usually had Black slaves from Africa teaching their children. Brainiac Blacks have always been around but as the Europeans began to grow stronger, they also started to change history, taking credit for most things, using Black slaves in the background.

               I know most people are yelling that it is not the way it was or is. I am only saying, believe it or not, we would not be living as well as we are now if not for the intelligence and teachings of Black people. Yet, a month is dedicated toward a few achievements when the numerous accomplishments are all around us. The people from the pass are forgotten and the people that are here today are passed by un-noticed. It has happened to me and it have happened to many people I know.

               So, Black History Month does not mean anything to me because every day, past and present, is a day that a Black person did something great. As you watch the impeachment trial remember this. Washington D.C., streets and important buildings were designed and built by Black people (slave and free) but most people do not know that fact. There is so much about so many things that is Black that even I am considered ignorant about the history. I know just enough to get me into trouble.

               (by the way, check out my other blog… www.faithingodministries.net )

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04

Jul. ’20

We Endured

THIS AN EXTRA TEGA227…THIS IS AN EXTRA TEGA227…THIS IS AN EXTRA TEGA227

Last week a fellow chapter member of the Tuskegee Airmen Association, Inc. Sent me an article from the New York Times (NYT Opinion by Caroline Randall Williams, You Want a Confederate Monument? My Body Is a Confederate Monument https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/26/opinion/confederate-monument-racism.HTML). After reading the well written article, all sorts of additions went through my mind and I decided to share a few thoughts with you.
Most White people claim to know history and especially the struggles of the Black person. They say they can feel our pain and sorrow. I don’t think they realize how deep it goes because most White people can trace their ancestry, most Black people cannot. They do not really understand why we can only trace our DNA to a country or area. They do not understand how painstakingly our history and culture was removed as if it never existed. We were told we were nothing, never would be anything and never had anything until they came along to save us. History does not bear that out although they tried to erase and/or distort history.
Against our will we were bought to this country in chains with untold many dying along the way. We were forbidden our language, it was forbidden to teach us to read and write, it was forbidden to gather in groups except to slave in the hot sun and, not least, to speak unless spoken to and it was always with a bowed head. If any law, written or unwritten, spoken or unspoken, we were whipped, beaten, shot, butchered, or hung. The women were constantly raped, and the offspring were either kept for the fields or sold. We were taught the Bible and christen ways although the White people did not uphold those values. After learning the christen way, we could only go to our church unless a White person was there to observe. The offspring, although some were indistinguishable from their White owners, were told that one drop of Negros blood made a person Black no matter the color of their skin. Humm…there are not many White people that do not have a drop of Black blood in their veins. I know some that went to school with me and later passed for White.
This country was built on the backs of Black people. There would not be a United States of America without the labor or ingenuity of Black people. Why did I use the word ingenuity? Let us think back to the days of the Pharoses and beyond. These people were not as Elisabeth Talyor, who portrayed Cleopatra, they were Black people, living in Egypt on the continent of Africa. The oldest operating library in the world is in Alexandria, Egypt. Plato, Socrates and many others studied and received advanced education there. The world still does not understand how the pyramids were built nor why they are still standing, just to name a few things.
As I said in recent blogs and a few before those, we Black people have endured a lot and is still enduring. We have endured inferior education and had to learn more than the White person to obtain a job. While obtaining a job, we received lower pay for the same or more work than the White person and a promotion is out of consideration. I could go on and on but, in a nutshell, the Black person gets shafted in everything that goes on simply because they are Black. We have endured a lot and, still, all that is said is for us to stop complaining because they are working on it and to suck it up. It is the same thing that have been said for years and years and, maybe, more years to come. However, we will endure.

 

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16

Feb. ’19

Black History

I will hit upon, just a fraction, a topic that would take a book to cover. Black History. This is a topic that some would say there is just a little of because they are ignorant of or just don’t want to see the facts. I say this because for many, many decades other races have attempted to quench Black History, a history that goes to the beginning of mankind itself.

I’ll start with Lucy. You know, the oldest bones ever found, and the bones were found in Africa, a continent of Black people. But, let us go to Egypt where the Pharaohs were, and pyramids are. Egypt is on the continent of Africa, Black people. Therefore, the Pharaohs were Black as well as all the people. Moses was found floating in a basket and the Pharaoh reared him as his own and the people never knew any difference. Therefore, Moses had to have been Black. Moses was Jewish, and Jesus, King of the Jews, had to have been Black.

Everyone remembers Socrates and Plato, great men. Most people don’t know that they studied at Alexandria which is in Egypt, which is in Africa, a library that is still in operation today. That mean Black men and Black institutions taught these men, men that others say are greater than the teachers (I truly doubt that), in the oldest library still in existence today.

The Black people of Egypt were so good in math and other things that the Pyramids and other things still exist today. Building, mortuary, writing, and many other things were honed by Black people. They even dabbed in pharmaceuticals, some still used today (one is aspirin). These were not ignorant nor lazy people. Other races of people constantly call them dumb, ignorant, non-human, incapable of learning anything, and on and on and on. We are harming ourselves today and only a few is taking advantage the inherent heritage that is within Black people.

When you look at the modern people, there are many, many Black people that show the brilliance that was given freely to others for thousands of years. No one wanted to be with nor work with Black people although Black people normally gets the hardest, dirtiest work but the job gets done with perfection. Remember all the wars the USA have been in and Black people have always been there (Buffalo Soldiers, Tuskegee Airmen, to name only a couple). We had a President of the United States, although through eight years of office the Republican Party stated over and over that they will not work with or approve anything that he did, and I personally think he did a fantastic job with the opposition against him. Now they are undoing everything he did, whether good or bad, just because he got it pass Congress somehow.

Black people seldom get the credit they deserve when the credit is due. Most good accomplishments are claimed by someone other than the originator. I have seen a lot of credit given long after the person is dead, seldom to a living Black person. It is the same as giving flowers to someone that have died. I rather smell the flowers while I am alive, I can’t smell them when I am dead. It’s the same with Black History, let me read it or hear it now. Let me be proud of my forefathers now. Let us teach the children about our greatness now, later is too late, Black History is now.

 

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