my face in history project

WHY I’M HERE?
Isn’t that the question we all ask ourselves? For me it’s a multitude of levels, answers, ideas, reasons… Most importantly I’m here sharing my experience. Searching for or reclaiming the idea or concept of “Self” through the eyes of people like me throughout history in our world.

WHO AM I?
If you look at me, you may not even want to call me an African American but I am by modern definition. Even my twin sons think I look mixed with Asian. Others have told me I have strong Native American blood. While a few say I look just like those ancient Egyptian sculptures and paintings and must have a connection to mystical Egypt in East Africa. Some Ethiopians approach me speaking Amharic. While I continue to get strange glances from young and old from East Indians. Most importantly, within I know I am connected to all those races and cultures because my own individual awareness allows me to not only see but experience the global connection that has existed in our world history.

WHATS GOING ON?
Today, even as I write this brief introduction my own teenage twin sons are experiencing the dynamic academic challenges that are so common in American schools today. It is this educational and spiritual crisis that prompts me into action and synthesizes with my own search for “Self” and family heritage tree WITH their limited understanding of the “Brown/Black” experience in World History as it relates to their own Self image, confidence and will power to succeed in the discipline of education. To loose self is in my opinion the greatest tragedy of man and that dehumanizing process begins at an early age when the Self is only seen through one colored lens and not focused on total truth still evident in the world. The absence of brown and black people in American and World history is where our children begin to disengage in the classroom. When you are only reminded that your American history began in the American African Slave Trade as a child something inside of you that is far worse than embarrassment and shame begins to plant seed and grow in those rapid adolescent years. When you have only one month granted to your culture to celebrate Black History bombarded by small excerpt clips of “I Have a Dream” speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. and yet never have the pleasure of hearing his speech in its entirety a child (or adult) never really gets to know who and what Martin Luther King, Jr. truly was and his profound oratory gifts he left behind as educational bodies of work for all of modern mankind. There lie the great distinctions in education that far exceeds the traditional classroom. Education then begins first within or with the Self. It is the internal quest for knowing something that profoundly affects your life forever. It shapes your development on intellectual, spiritual and even physical levels in a wholistic interconnected paradigm and leaves fragmentation, confusion, and chaos first developed within the self from habitual behavior in the outer world through action.

WHAT CRISIS?
Right now we live in a time where there are many pleasures and elite world status we are blessed with like the expansion of our democracy and global expansion, international capitalism, modern technology; the internet, communications like cable tv, video, chats and iphones but a real decline of self understanding. We are often knowledgeable about things that have no real impact or meaning in shaping our lives. As the global countries are moving to solve the Greenhouse Environmental Crisis and local environmental organizations monitor the quality of our soil and fight against genetically modified foods we continue to ignore the Self Awareness crisis that exists within our selves. The result is ignorance of self, bad choices, and an unfulfilled life in adulthood. The dark side to this Self-Awareness Crisis is negative self-image abroad and at home in the media, in video games, music and TV shows, acceptance of this world self-image results in thug-gangster or pimp-ho roles played out in real life as a rites of passage into manhood and womanhood. These further result in life choices that are damaging not only intellectually, but socially, spiritually, economically, culturally, etc. It is as if one affects the other in a circular pattern whether subtle or overtly dynamic. There is a devastating cause-and-effect paradigm that is digested which is played out on the world stage.

REAL LIFE EXAMPLE:
For 50cent to have been robbed in Africa during a live stage performance only a few weeks ago is an example of how this World Stage Image has evolved and become life threatening on so many levels. It sends a message that the Africans who only a few generations ago looked up to struggling African American’s during the Civil Rights Era in American history have through the rise of the popular American media self- image surpassed the negative world image of the African American male. This global phenomenon to emulate the modernized pop African American self image has been a co creator of destructive choices, action and events. The message is “I’m a badder N**** than you!” The gangster-thug acclaimed hip hop artist 50cent is an “ambassador” for the “Get Rich or Die Trying” American-Bling consciousness perpetuated in mainstream commercialized hip hop music and movie pop culture. One thinks “the audacity of those Africans, they’re just like Americans now” or maybe that is only my own personal assumption? (smile)

BACK TO BASICS:
The truth is undeniable through any lens, that we are in our own crisis to resurrect Self in our current world. On a smaller scale we experience and feel the very real challenges our young boys face in elementary, middle and high schools. When they are diagnosed with ADHD, emotional, learning disabilities, exhibit poor or declining grades and interest in school, fade out of mainstream educational or traditional settings, lack focus, drive, and direction for their own future, we as parents, community leaders, educators, mentors, and family members have to really question what is happening to them (and us). We must at some point in the healing process confront our own lives, values, emotions, habits, etc. We must look within and look back to our past in order to reclaim, redefine, and resurrect our sense of Self. Only therein lays the hidden treasures of knowledge and history that will directly impact our daily lives, choices, and future. I believe we can lead by example for the rest of the world such truths that we express individually and collectively. That our struggle is first the wrestling of the mind, thoughts, and images and once we expand our thinking and understanding, our awareness is also more fully developed and reflected in the outer world.

MY GIFT TO YOU:
By sharing with you what we learn through our Family Project, “My Face In History” and “History in Our Own Backyard” we experience an invaluable exchange. Not only are our roots strengthened, we are also blossoming into our legacy of evolution on this planet. The truth has many forms of expressions, so like shopping at a Farmer’s Market you take only what you need or want at that time. You return when you need new variety or trying a new recipe or an old favorite. But you take with you a blessing you then share with others. The blessing is knowing.

WHAT IS THIS?:
This is an Online Scrapbook where we can share our thoughts, research, findings, storytelling and personal accounts of “our” global history in hidden in our own faces and cultural backyards..share your own stories here…

With the Highest Love,

Ria Takharu