Quiet No More

The Everyday Power of Embracing Blackness

• Carmen Cauthen

Share episode

What does it truly mean to celebrate Black identity every single day? I'm Carmen Cauthen, and I invite you to join me as we explore the profound significance of embracing Black culture in our daily lives. Drawing from my own experiences growing up in an all-Black community, I reflect on how cultural celebrations like Emancipation Day and Black History Month have shaped our understanding of Blackness. My personal stories highlight the challenges and unique cultural aspects that have molded my identity, underscoring the need to recognize and appreciate the diversity of all cultures while honoring the distinct characteristics of being Black.

Celebrating differences enriches our collective identity as Americans. Together, we can uplift and support one another's journeys toward self-acceptance and unity. Growing up in a predominantly white neighborhood, I learned the importance of maintaining my essence as a proud Black woman without compromising any part of my heritage. 

As we approach a series of Black holidays, let's embrace the beauty of our differences—whether in appearance, speech, or cultural practices. Through this conversation, I invite you to reflect on your roots and join me in celebrating the beautiful mosaic of our identities, ensuring we remain "Quiet, no More.

====================================
Carmen Wimberley Cauthen is an author, speaker, and lover of history, Black history in particular. As a truth teller, she delights in finding the hidden truths about the lives of people who made a difference - whether they were unknown icons or regular everyday people.

To Learn more of Carmen:
www.carmencauthen.com
www.researchandresource.com

Speaker 1:

Unseen, unheard. We've lived like that far too long. I'm Carmen Coffin and this is Quiet, no More. I have a question when do you celebrate being Black? So it is.

Speaker 1:

This is the first week of January and Emancipation Day. For those people who celebrate, it would have been January 1st, and some towns and cities, if they celebrate at all, are celebrating the first weekend of January. Now, when I was growing up, I didn't know anything about Emancipation Day being January 1st. That was my grandmother's birthday and we celebrated her, not Emancipation Day, but that is when Emancipation Day was to be after Abraham Lincoln. President Abraham Lincoln gave information in September of the prior year that that would be the day that the slaves would be freed in those states that he designated Not all of them, but in those places that he designated.

Speaker 1:

So when do you celebrate being black? Do you celebrate Emancipation Day? Do you celebrate on Martin Luther King Jr's real birthday, which is January 15th, and not the day that we celebrate it most of the time the third Monday in January? Do you celebrate it during the shortest month of the year, february? Do you celebrate it every day? It's important to celebrate being Black every day. We celebrate being Americans. Every day, we celebrate all sorts of things every day. We are who we are. We are Americans, but we are brown and black and red Americans, and so the importance of the things that we celebrate needs to be spread out during 365 days of the year. I am not trying to days of the year, I am not trying to negate any of the other celebrations, any other American celebrations, but our cultures are different.

Speaker 1:

If you are Irish American, I would imagine you celebrate some things that are specific to Irish, irish people, to Ireland. If you are an Italian American, I would imagine that you celebrate some things that are Italian in your background. If you are a German American, I anticipate that you celebrate those things as well. And so when people say to me why do you have to bring race into it? Well, I wouldn't have to if race hadn't been brought into it to begin with, but it was. And while we consider that America is a melting pot, if you consider that you melt all the crayons in the crayon box into one big lump, they still have distinct colors in them. I don't want to lose the distinct color that I have or that I was born with. So I celebrate being black. I celebrate that there are different skin tones in the people around me. I celebrate that how I cook may not be the same as how others cook. I celebrate that there are people who were important to people who were part of my race that some white people don't know anything about and don't think that they're important, but they are, and so I just want to make you think about that.

Speaker 1:

When and how do you celebrate being Black? Now, I know that there are people out there going. Why does she have to go there? Well, I grew up as a young girl in an all black community, because that was all that there was for people who looked like me. We couldn't necessarily shop at places where white people would shop. We couldn't necessarily go to the park. In fact, there weren't parks when I was growing up for me, except for Chavis Park, and so sometimes my mother would take us to or she would take me, because I think this was before my brother was born but she would take me to see the ducks at a cemetery because there was a pond there, and so that was one of the ways that she would show nature to me.

Speaker 1:

I have to celebrate all of the pieces of me, and one of the biggest pieces of me. One of the biggest pieces that you see when you look at me is my brown skin. My brown skin has been called some of everything. I remember when I was growing up, my grandmother thought we were colored and she did not like the fact that by the 60s, by the mid-60s, people who had brown skin were calling each other black Because black did not seem to be a good thing to her. But I celebrated that. I celebrated when I was a Negro, before people were called black.

Speaker 1:

I've celebrated being African American. I have to celebrate who I am. You need to celebrate who you are. It doesn't mean that there aren't some white people in my lineage. It doesn't mean that there are Native Americans in my lineage, but primarily I identify as a black woman and I'm thankful that that's who I am. And whoever you are, you need to be thankful to be who you are. But don't let that take away the importance of who other people are and who and what their culture is like. So there are things that are different.

Speaker 1:

I spent a lot of time growing up having my hair combed differently, shaped differently, putting chemical relaxers in it to straighten it out. I have curls, some natural curls in my hair. You don't necessarily see them, but they're there and they can get tangled up and knotty and that's part of my blackness and I'm thankful for it. I am not ever going to pretend that I'm not who I am Now. I've had people say that I didn't appreciate who I was or that I didn't know who I was. I've been called an Oreo black on the outside and white on the inside Black on the outside and white on the inside.

Speaker 1:

Part of that came from the fact that I grew up primarily in a white neighborhood, so I was around people who sounded white all the time and didn't take away who I was raised to be at the core and I'm not going to ever give that up that we did not all melt together, we did not all meld together.

Speaker 1:

We aren't all one color, we aren't all one anything except Americans, and I am thankful to be who I am a Black woman, woman, a strong and proud black woman, and I know where I came from and I know that if you know where you came from, that you would be willing to say I'm proud of this piece of me and I'm proud of this piece of me and I could put those pieces together, regardless of how many they are, to make a whole me and to do better, not just for me, but to help others to do better.

Speaker 1:

But that doesn't mean doing better means they need to leave who they are behind behind. And so, as we head into this series of Black holidays or so I'm thinking that some people think of them, because we don't celebrate very many things that are Black all year long I want you to consider that it's okay to be different, to look different, to sound different, to eat different things, to have different ways of viewing things, and it doesn't take anything away from anybody else. And you have to do that. I'm going to do that because I'm going to be quiet. No more You've been listening to Quiet, no More where I share my journey, so you can be quiet.