01/01/2024
Culture versus community.
I attended Jean Ribault Senior High School back in the early 80s and I am a PROUD Blue and White waving Trojan.
However, I was misinformed and would have attended William Marion Raines if I had been properly educated on my high school choices. In fact, I would have made the choice to attend Edwin McMasters Stanton High School, if I had it to do all over again...
Naw, I would have chosen Raines. I needed the band. LOL
We attended Ribault to support our community, which is what anyone does. We continued to make Ribault Manor, Sherwood Forest, Harborview, Washington Heights, Lincoln Estates, Forest Hills, and surrounding areas OURS.
The community saw 'Whtie Flight' in the early 70's and the Black families readily moved in with zeal and optimism.
This was despite the occasional overpriced properties and the sabotage that was rampant in the newly purchased homes. (People were putting cement in the drains and toilets...)
We peppered and then blackend the entire area in a matter of three years or so.
This was against the backdrop of Northwestern becoming a junior high school and Willam Marion Raines being switched to a high school from an elementary school to stave off the attempts to integrate the gem of the northside...Ribault High.
Jacksonville coordinated the integration of the formerly 'all white' schools to be supported in 1971 and they bussed in the black youth to integrate, which meant that black kids had to get up an hour earlier to catch a bus to a previously all-white school to be bullied, discriminated against, and exposed to racial tensions that still exists in communities that have realigned to remain as segregated as they were in the 60s. Although they are segregated by economics more so now.
We made the community ours. Unlike Englewood, Terry Parker, Wolfson, Ed White, Robert E. Lee., etc, we LIVED in this new neighborhood school. Similar to Gilbert, Stanton, Northwestern, and Butler.
We put our efforts into making the community OURS.
We thought that being Black would automatically bring culture with us and that it would be championed, but it wasn't.
The thing about culture, you have to be purposeful when you begin to institute it. The '70s saw bell bottoms, vibrant colors, afros, and platform shoes. We saw the music, hairstyles, and verbiage of the young people become a part of our culture and our community.
The same with the 80s with the Chic, Calvin Klein and other jeans, the crayon, Leglove shoes, thin straight ties, Member's Only jackets, and the Jeri Curl.
The culture also so the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the introduction of crack co***ne. This is when we saw criminal and health issues be either ridiculed, ignored, or secretly tried, and this led to the demise of our neighborhoods/communities. This was NOT cultural but an epidemic. Still, we saw the violence, drug dealing, street cred, and objectification of women become a part of the downside of the culture.
This is when we saw the negative, criminal activities that were occurring in our community become embraced as a part of our culture when criminal activity has never been a major part of any cultural image or activity. It is frowned upon, discouraged, and looked upon with scorn.
Today, we see students bring the criminal elements to school, to the mall, to sports contests, and to other activities as though it is part of what it means to be 'black'. It is so rampant that students from all socioeconomic backgrounds believe we should carry guns, smoke dope, be sexually promiscuous, lie, steal, and assault one another because it is the cultural expectation when we know differently.
My point is this, we have sullied our cultural identity and have championed a community that was a hand me down from the previous owners. We were never French Huegenotts or colonizers and we can see that attempting to make those aspects a part of our culture is fruitless without the proper cultural relevance.
We have to teach our young people that the goal is to live in peace and harmony and NOT to create tensions, commit violence, and destroy the very areas where we live.
The goal is to utilize the principles of Kwanzaa daily to make our village, empowered, economically sound, and develop in a manner that is what we desire. One that serves all ages, and economic levels, and endeavors that help us to become the BEST community that we could hope for.
Be culturally purposeful and respect one another for the diverse, rich, and talented diaspora that we are.
This Black History Month needs to continue to shine a light on the accomplishments of our local heroes and sheroes and the direction that we need to continue to move in for our ancestors.
Signed, a proud Ribault Trojan who is a Viking at heart, but an advocate for the cultural relevance of our community.
Hotep
