Although April 1st is not a national holiday, many Americans will treat it as such. April 1st or as it is almost universally known, April Fools’ Day, is the day where Americans play pranks throughout the day on one another. If you can imagine it, we do it.
From placing insulting signs on one another’s backs to covering someone’s car with post-it notes to tampering with somebody’s meal, we spend the day indulging in foolishness. However, given the state of our community, can we really afford to waste even one day playing pranks? Is it a good use of our resources, time and energy to spend even one minute – let alone an entire day – participating in actions that not only fail to advance our community but model for future generations counterproductive behavior?
A NEW DAY
Every day some media outlet reports the disconcerting facts about our community. Headlines such as Black Unemployment Rate is Consistently Twice That of Whites, Wealth Inequality Between Blacks and Whites Worsens, and Blacks’ Income Remains the Lowest of Any Group are routine captions. To make matters worse the headlines of those who will model our April 1st behavior are equally dismal if not more so depressing. Among the stories reported in every news outlet are Minority Students Face “Much Harsher Discipline”, Racial Disparity in Academic Achievement, and Black Student College Graduation Rates Remain Low.
Given the constantly reported and well documented state of the African American community – I know it’s a crazy thought but – perhaps we should skip the April 1st pranks this year and start a new tradition. Instead of April Fools’ Day what if our community instituted April Genius Day?
MAKE REVOLUTION OUR SOUL-UTION
Rather than playing pranks on one another, April Genius Day would be the day where we inspired each other to dream of ways to remove all the socioeconomic and racial troubles that afflict our community. Instead of trying to come up with an original prank on April 1st, we could spend our collective energies for a full 24 hours creating and inventing things that will improve our community and change the world.
I’m not naïve. I realize that doing something revolutionary like forgoing pranks and electing to participate in activities aimed exclusively at changing the community won’t be easy. However, revolution is both possible and necessary if we embrace our communal creativity and cultivate our individual ingenuity.
Let’s not forget that doing the impossible is what (the best and brightest) of our community has always stood for and exhibited. Rising above unspeakable challenges and succeeding when it appeared improbable is when we have been at our best.
Ours is a history of turning food scraps into a distinctive cuisine (soul food) that is appreciated and consumed worldwide. Ours is a history of birthing an intellectual renaissance where the previous generation was forbidden and threatened with death if they attempted to learn to read. Ours is a history that created America’s only true art form (jazz) while suffering in the disharmonious institution of slavery. If the state of our community is to improve, history demonstrates that we can and we must count on ourselves to make it so.
“UP YOU MIGHTY RACE ACCOMPLISH WHAT YOU WILL”
The late great Marcus Garvey when speaking to African-Americans in the early 1900s was fond of saying “up you mighty race accomplish what you will”. I believe that if Mr. Garvey were alive today, he would have us skip the April Fools’ Day pranks and concentrate on accomplishing those things that improve our socioeconomic standing and advance the overall wellbeing of our community.
Although Mr. Garvey is no longer capable of speaking to us directly, he left the guiding principles of self-help and unity for us to follow. Thus, if we are willing to put in the work, stop waiting on others to change our plight and work together harmoniously rather than as crabs in a barrel, we and we alone have the power to change our socioeconomic standing and transform the news headlines from gloomy to glorious. Through a universal and collective self-determination we have a soul-ution that can improve all the societal statistics that presently befuddle us.
So this April 1st and every April 1st hereafter let’s do ourselves and our community a favor. Instead of participating in foolishness, let’s apply the principles of self-help and unity to make sure that we uplift our community to heights unknown. Let’s spend the entire day, 1440 minutes, using our collective talents and gifts to derive methods and strategies to make sure that we all get to experience a life that is happily ever after.
BMWK – Happy April Genius Day! Up you mighty race accomplish what you will!