I had an interesting conversation a few days ago with a good friend and colleague who does not see me as Black. This conversation came about in light of Chris Matthews having forgotten for an hour that President Obama was also Black. Unlike Chris Matthews, she did not mean this as a compliment but simply as a statement of fact as to how she perceived me. Now this is a good friend and someone that I have worked with on several projects over the years, but I still felt it necessary to explain to her why to me not seeing me as Black is not a very positive thing to me. You see, for me, my being Black is a very positive aspect of my being. I don’t associate any negative, only positive, with my Blackness. To me it means that I have a cultural heritage that is varied, and unique. I come from a line of people that have survived one of the most difficult trials in recent human history and have thrived on the other side of that trial of slavery. My ancestors are also the creators of some of the earliest advanced human civilizations as well. My being Black gives me a very deep and wide perspective of society so long as I focus on the positive aspects that are natural for me to focus upon when I think of Black. Unfortunately, for most people it seems that when they think of Black they think of the negative imagery that much of mainstream media tends to put out. This is a shame, because there is so much good in Black that I find it hard to see the negative. Dr. King did not want us to forget the color of our skin, he wanted us all to look upon the content of people’s character - that does not mean that you deny the package that carries the character.
Blackbird is all about getting people, not just Black - we want everyone to use Blackbird - to understand that Black is a positive thing. We want Chris Matthews to look at our President, remember that he is Black and take comfort that someone with such a deep cultural heritage has much to reflect upon to lead all of us as a nation. There is no negative, only positive in that.


