I'm So Proud

For a long time now, we Blacks have been preaching the value of diversity, but we as a people have never practiced this notion. As a graduate of Atkins High School, I remember when only light skinned, shapely girls with beautiful legs could be majorettes. Back then, the color of your skin was a primary predictor of your IQ, no matter how smart you were. If you had dark skin, your opportunities for success were limited to the athletic arena.

Remember when your grandmother would say you had good hair or bad hair depending on how straight and easy to manage it was. In fact, the more closely you resembled the majority race the more beautiful and accepted you were. This was a self-filling prophecy, because if you were white-looking and acting, you got the best grades, and all the young girls loved you. Remember the singers Billy Eckstine, Arthur Prysock and Johnny Mathis and how our parents loved them. In their time, these men were the epitome of Black Manhood.

Just last weekend, I attended the Winston-Salem State University (WSSU) Homecoming Parade and it made me so very proud that my people are now finally practicing diversity. Like everything else we do, we are the best at it. Majorettes are now large, very dark, well-rounded, young ladies. They come in all sizes and shapes; there were short ones, tall ones, attractive ones and intelligent ones, in all colors from ink to pink. They were all doing their own things and finally realizing that nothing or no one can keep them from achieving their dreams and aspirations. Their mothers walked along the parade route with bottled water ready if their babies got thirty.

The young men were also something to behold as they led the bands and played those African Rhythms on the drums. They marched tall and proud as young men, protectors of our women, families, neighborhoods and the future or our race. Think about hundreds and hundreds of Blacks coming together just to have fun and meet and greet old friends and college classmates.

At the place where I stood, there was a young mother with her three children. The youngest of these was a two year-old boy who was afraid of the clowns but found the courage to wave to all the lovely ladies on the floats. I never attended WSSU but I was in the U.S. Air Force and I got the same feeling of pride when my company passed in review of the parade strand. The city should also be proud of the parade’s Grand Marshals, Police Chief Patricia Norris, Fire Chief John Gist, Recreation and Parks Director Tim Grant and Mayor Allen Joines. This is the kind of pride that swells up inside and gives you a feeling of wellbeing. I get this same feeling watching our people as God made us, happy, free and loving to all mankind. There was a Hispanic Family with two sons and they fitted right in to the crowd and celebration. From the guys selling T-shirts to the woman selling Candy Apples, everyone seemed to have a good time. It has been a long time since I have had something to be genuinely happy and proud about. Thank you black neighbors and friends, you made me feel oh so very proud to be an African American.