Reddit – Dive into anything

The title of the article is weird because the author is saying how cutting African American studies can affect society in other, indirect ways, not that DeSantis has plans to cut other courses [he might (edit: he does) but it isn’t what the article is about that the title alludes to].

Having said that, Black history IS American history. From immigrants to the indigenous to the coal miners, everyone who has ever been exploited, their history is American history. The “outlaw”, patriotic country music some of these folks like so much? They can thank Woody Guthrie, a man who sang his love for this country because of the people in it, stood against racism, and sang songs supporting unions in their fight. He even wrote a song about how awful Trump’s dad was.

And a simple fact that always gets to me is this- The Voyager Golden Record, sent out into space to give some other intelligent life an idea of what life is like on earth, has a song on it called, Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground by Blind Willie Johnson. He was a black blues musician who eerily died in a way the title of the song describes. His house was burned to the ground, and he had nowhere else to go, so he lived in its remains. He got sick and hospitals wouldn’t care for him because he was black, so he died homeless in the shell of the house he once had. The song has no words, just some of his humming, and it still somehow captures the plight and melancholy we humans face in this world. Listening to it now, and knowing his story, how he died cold and alone in a world who didn’t care about him, buried in an unmarked grave until 2010, of which it’s still unknown what grave is his, only that he most likely was buried in that cemetery- just rattles me to the core. His music floats on in the emptiness of space as we fight here about whether or not stories like his should be told, his song seeking ears to hear it. Just gets to me.