To be honest, I didn’t want to do a “Black History” post. I fully understand the significance, but it’s only a token of sorts. I like to think we’re each shaping history daily…and some of us happen to be Black.

But as another Black History Month is drawing to a close & McDonald’s prepares to stop running their ads, I did want to take a second to reflect back Claude McKay’s “If We Must Die,” a poem that always caused me to take pride in my history and being a man.

“If we must die, O let us nobly die,

So that our precious blood may not be shed

In vain; then even the monsters we defy

Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!”

At the time the poem was published, the climate was different in America – race riots, Jim Crow, llynchings, etc. But essentially, the quest was still to gain respect & the fight to determine our own destiny, the same battle many artists & individuals such as ourselves chase daily.

Today, while racism & other intolerables are in still full effect, I think the face of the opponent has shifted.

In these digital times – Jim Jones, our biggest battle takes place within ourselves. Our society isn’t perfect, but even with it’s imperfections, most of us have a decent shot @ creating a future…if we can overcome our own personal demons. Before, it was “the man.” Now it’s more of the man in the mirror.

Alot of tracks came to mind when the topic popped up.

But nothing said what was on my mind better than the track by Brother O’Shea – “US.”