I'm Not Really Into History

Remember Bob Marley's 'Buffalo Soldier?'
You know, Dread Lock Rasta?

It was almost a national anthem back in the day. At least it was in New York.

Well, the Buffalo Soldiers are taking a beating in the history museum here in Los Angeles. When I went to the Gene Autry Museum of the West in Los Angeles, California, they were having a particularly bad day.

At first I was very happy to go with some Veterans for chance to honor Black Americans who served their country in the pioneering west; The Buffalo Soldiers.

I excitedly asked where the Buffalo Soldiers were. The info specialist said, down stairs to the right. One by one, everyone one of them did.
Every time I came back up the stairs and told them I didn't see them.

I saw two large displays of Will Pickett, that Black rodeo cowbyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy was given andI thought, wow, if they'd give that much attention to a rodeo cowboy then there must be a wing for the Buffalo Soldiers, but no.

I got so frustrated that I marched up to the information desk and challenged the attendents, one who said he had a Masters Degree in Western History, to: 1. show me where the exhibit was and 2. why it wasn't as large a display.

They had no idea.
They had no idea that it was the Buffalo Soldiers who chased Pancho Villa, it was the Buffalo Soldiers who chased legendary Indians and outlaws around the west.
It was the Buffalo Soldiers who mediated disputes between the Indians and the 'settlers.'

The Buffalo Soldiers had a corner of a dimly-lit, shared display case. They weren't even referred to as Buffalo Soldiers. They were called their infantry and Calvary numbers; 9th & 10th Calvary
9mounted) and 24th & 25th infantry...

I called the curator. He never called back.
I called his lieutenant. He never called back.

Compton Middle School was there at the museum that day.
I asked the teacher - an African - if I could ask his students about what they knew about the Buffalo Soldiers. He agreed.

I approached group after group of kids asking if they knew who the Buffalo Soldiers were. I can't dignify any of their ignorant answers. None.
Most were fat and otherwise well fed.
Of the 20-plus kids I asked, none of them, White, Latino or Black knew who they were.

I checked my blood pressure.

I then asked who the Buffalo Soldiers were to a Black supervisor and a Latino one. They told me they were teachers. I asked the Black teacher who the Buffalo Soldiers were and she said, "I'm not really into history."

?

Would that count as plain ignorance, amnesia or social/cultural choice. What she was saying is, "I don't identify or acknowledge Black people, their history, how they got out west or what they did to survive once they got here. How did they survive? I don't care."

Black folks owned a large part of what is now Los Angeles and Burbank for Chrissakes.

A Black teacher in one of the deepest Black ghettos there is in America. Not just South Central, but Compton. Right next to Watts. Where the riots broke out because of social injustices.

The Black teacher who is supposed to be educating Black children in crisis didn't know who the Buffalo Soldiers were. Never heard of them.

Never heard of them.

And she's a teacher.

And their talking about legally requiring a parent to have a license in order to home school their own children. Yes, here in Califirnia. Yes, right here in Los Angeles.