Black History Month

 MJ and I visited the National Museum of African American History and Culture today in D.C., and it's a rather exquisite building, everything from its location just across the street form the Washington Monument, to it step pyramid shape of each floor being a layer of the pyramid, to the Yoruba style-crown that it resembles (Yoruba being an African ethnic group in Nigeria and Benin, NOT the Yuba noodles that MJ likes to get, which are originally from Japan and quite delicious. 

I've been to the National Mall plenty of times (including working there in the summer of 2016) and never felt the urge to go to inside this awesome building (completed in 2016), but inside is a waterfall, an old Tuskeegee Airmen aircraft from World War II times, a pre-Civil Rights train with whites-only and black-only sections, and LOTS and LOTS of TV's. A lot has changed in the world since 2016, but the style inside the NMAAHC still seems pretty high-tech. If I were to start a podcast where I do reviews about museums (since MJ and I go to so many of them), this museum would get a lot of stars. The African American entertainment stars section really resembles the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with exhibits of famous performers and gear they played as well as their best hits pumping in the background. And if one was to try to learn more about African American history in honor of Black History Month (February), one could do worse than just spend the day at this museum, plenty of information packed in with not just entertainers and sports stars (plenty of those whom I can name off the top of my head from basketball, football, jazz, soul, and hip-hop) but also political leaders and historical leaders like Mary Bethune (she is like, a big deal), Shirley Chisholm (one of her speeches was playing on a loop from her 1972 presidential candidate run), John Lewis, Jesse Jackson, poetry by Phyllis Wheatley and Gwendolyn Brooks, inspirational quotes and famous speeches, and tragic deaths like of Trayvon Martin, the lynching of Emmett Till, and most recently the death of Breonna Taylor (depicted artfully by painter Amy Sherald). 

I learned a lot from the NMAAHC even as a fully-grown "educated" American citizen, which begs the question, does America teach enough African American history? I remember in 5th grade spending many months on Native American history and doing various class projects with Shoshone, Navajo, Cherokee, Seminole, Iroquois tribes, but there wasn't a distinct time I could remember which was dedicated fully to learning ONLY African American history, the events just weave into American History as a whole. Which, I think, is the right idea: the history of black people in the U.S. IS American history, with so many events happening that affected all Americans. I knew the key figures like Malcolm X, MLK, Rosa Parks, Frederick Douglas, Nat Turner, Harriet Tubman, Crispus Attucks (deep dive there), and like other parts of history I didn't learn or remember learning in history classes (such as the Space Race, specific Civil War battles) I had to fill in the blanks on my own and self-educating on more specific people like Medgar Evers, Million Man March, Greensboro Sit-in, Montgomery Bus Boycott, etc.) So yes, while a special museum dedicated to just African American history and culture is warranted, I do think schools put out the basic material for students to get a general sense of major events of black history, and then if they feel more interested about it they could read on their own or.....go to the NMAAHC; there's plenty to learn. 

Oh and we also watched the Menu (movie) this weekend.....it's like a cross between MJ's favorite cooking experience restaurants and "Parasite"( the 2020 Oscar winning movie I gush about all the time on this blog and to friends)…best to know nothing going in. 

Oh and I also binge-watched Station Eleven on HBO Max and the Last of Us. For whatever reason, post-apocalyptic shows have been so good since the pandemic happened, whether it's because the showrunners had more real-world experience, whether the shows resonate more with viewers due to our shared experiences of the pandemic, or just incredible writing and acting and money thrown at these shows; we've all certainly been prepped pretty well for the next pandemic/mass-extinction event, should it happen in our lifetimes. Covid was just a dress rehearsal.