CAMPUS CELEBRATES BLACK HISTORY MONTH
On Thursday the Lake County Campus recognized Black History Month with a mid-day celebration from noon to 1:30 p.m. Host and Alumnus Randall Cole, who was accompanied by musical guest Victor Hall as well as several guest speakers, engaged the audience asking, “What does Black History mean to you?” The answers were not black and white.
Hall and his band set the stage with African drumming and traditional songs followed by some funk, getting the audience to dance in their seats. Hall is an instructor and also the CEO of Camp Fame, a music and performance program for children. After a musical introduction Randall opened the program stating “The room is filled with beauty… it's like a portrait and this is part of my black history.”
Cole illustrated the differences in “change talk” versus “sustain talk”. In sustain talk, we focus on the bad. We focus on the parts of history that separated people based on color, the hardships faced by the black community, and all the hurt and struggles they have faced. In change talk, we shift that focus onto the positive impacts made by the black community, impacts that often get overshadowed by all the negative connotations. Cole handed out flyers that listed black inventors, with over 100 inventions. Common items, items that changed the modern world, items that you may not have known were invented by a black person. Through changing the conversation from sustain talk to change talk, the parts of history that have been missed are celebrated.
A panel of three LCC students fielded the main question “What does Black History mean to you?” Antony
Jones, majoring in Culinary Arts and Welding, answered “What Black History means to me is a time to celebrate greatness and understand the things that were overcame to make it this far.” Chelsea Turner, a Business Administration major, spoke on the importance of equal rights and equal access to schooling stating “I'm appreciative of all my ancestors and all that they have gone through to make this possible today.” Pete Lamb, Culinary Arts major, discussed the many achievements of the black community noting “It means a lot to me that we can take at least a short amount of time out of our year for Black History, it's very beneficial for people to learn.” Many members of the audience also shared their stories and illustrations of what black history means to them. Barbara Christwitz from Clearlake shared “Forced segregation, that's all of us, and it made it so that the cards were stacked against African American people and we all need to know that history.”
The first guest speaker was Aqeela Markowski, Doctoral Candidate of Criminal Justice. Markowski shared her family history as that is her black history. She explained how she was raised by all women, spending time with her Grandmothers and attending church every Sunday in Savannah Georgia. Markowski stated “Let's honor our parents, and our grandparents, and the people that cared for us.” Some of her best memories are listening to the Ready, Set, Go Barnwagon show which instilled a life long love of music and radio, reflected in her eight years hosting the Women's Voice's show on the local KPFZ community radio. Markowski shared “I didn't know what these people looked like I just liked their music. It wasn't until the Ed Sullivan Show that I could see these people and say ok this guy is black and that guy is white. And I still listen to all that music.”
District Two Supervisor Bruno Sabatier was the second guest speaker and noted the necessity of teaching black history stating “Black History is a part of my life and I think it's a part of everyone's lives because when I think what black history means to me I think of American history.” Sabatier spoke of his first memories of immigrating to this country at five years old and how his youngest friends were other children of color, as they all felt like outsiders together. Sabatier continued, highlighting a few landmark civil rights cases that have helped lead the way to equal civil rights.
Victor Hall and is bandmates played out the program with “This little light of mine” as a friendly reminder to continue to shine.