The Manhattans: Kiss And Say Goodbye

This has got to be
the saddest day of my life

I called you here today
for a bit of bad news

I won’t be able to see you anymore
Because of my obligations,
and the ties that you have

We’ve been meeting here
everyday
And since this is our last day together
I wanna hold you just one more time

When you turn and walk away,
don’t look back
I wanna remember you just like this
Let’s just kiss and say goodbye

I had to meet you here today

There’s just so many things to say

Please don’t stop me
’til I’m through
This is something I hate to do
We’ve been meeting here so long
I guess what we’ve done,
oh was wrong
Please darlin’, don’t you cry
Let’s just kiss and say goodbye

Many months have passed us by
(I’m gonna miss you)
I’m gonna miss you, I can’t lie
(I’m gonna miss you)
I’ve got ties, and so do you
I just think this is the thing to do
It’s gonna hurt me, I can’t lie
Maybe you’ll meet,
you’ll meet another guy
Understand me,
won’t you try, try, try,
try, try, try, try
Let’s just kiss and say goodbye
(Goodbye!)

Hmmmm
(I’m gonna miss you)
I’m gonna miss you, I can’t lie
(I’m gonna miss you)
Understand me, won’t you try
(I’m gonna miss you)
It’s gonna hurt me, I can’t lie
(I’m gonna miss you)
Take my hankerchief and wipe your eyes
(I’m gonna miss you)
Maybe you’ll find, you’ll find another guy
(I’m gonna miss you)
Let’s kiss and say goodbye, pretty baby
(I’m gonna miss you)
Please,
don’t you cry
(I’m gonna miss you)
Understand me, won’t you try
(I’m gonna miss you)
Let’s just kiss and say goodbye

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Black History Month

Black History Month (1976) in America is February. It is the month when schoolchildren write reports about famous black Americans and when big companies notice Black America in their ads. It is the month when Google gets a fourth of all of its searches for “Rosa Parks”.

It started out in 1926 as Negro History Week, the second week of February when the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln fall. It was started by Carter G. Woodson, who is best known for writing “The Mis-Education of the Negro”. In those days black men were being hung from trees and blacks appeared in history books only as slaves.

In 1976 the week became a month: Black History Month.

America is not the only country with a Black History Month. Canada has it too. In Britain it is in October.

On Oprah’s talk show a white woman once asked why there should be a Black History Month – there is no White History Month after all. Well, that is because every month is White History Month. Instead of being the shortest month of the year, White History Month is the month that never seems to end.

It is not just whites who do not see the need for it. So do some blacks. The Nation of Islam is against it. Some blacks argue it has become an empty act.

In 2005 on “60 Minutes” Morgan Freeman, a rich and famous black Hollywood actor, said that Black History Month was “ridiculous”. He said: “I don’t want a Black History Month. Black history is American history.” And then he went on to say that the way to get rid of racism is to stop talking about it. The month, it seems, helps to keep racism alive by playing up people’s differences.

History tells us who we are, where we have been and where we are going. It is a map of time.  American history cannot be properly understood without first understanding race. To do otherwise would be like trying to understand India without caste or Nazi Germany without anti-Semiticism. For Americans to understand their history in a colour-blind way would mean being lost, it would mean not knowing who they truly are.

And it would mean that racism would go on, like a cancer that silently eats away inside your body till the doctors find it and cut it out.

Black History Month as currently practised is a step in the right direction, but it is not enough.

Black History Month is like the black weather girl: a token – something that whites can accept that will satisfy blacks for the time being.

Black History Month is like a ghetto – a place to put black people so that whites can pretty much forget about them otherwise.

Black history is more than a march of Exceptional Negroes. Freeman was right when he said Black history is American history. But American history as currently told is largely a whitewash that keeps racism in place.

See also:

• Race in America
• James Baldwin on deluded white people
• Apple-pie America
• black ghetto
• white privilege

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L.T.D.: Love Ballad

Yeah
I have never been so much
In love
Before

What a difference
A true love made in my life
So nice
So right

Loving you gave me something new
That I’ve never felt
Never dreamed of
Somethings changed
No, it’s not the
Feeling I had before

Ooh, it’s much much more
Love I never knew that it’s touch
Could mean so much

What a difference
And when we walked hand in hand
I feel
So real

Lovers come and then lovers go
That’s what folks say
Don’t they know
They’re not there
When you love me
Hold me and say you care

And what we have is much more
Than they could see

What we have is much more
Than they could see

What we have is much more
Than they could see

What we have is much more
Than they could see
…

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