Black. Home. Aga[IN].

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA - I've been struggling trying to find out how I would cover Indiana's black history this year. I constantly work to include black history in the stories that I tell about our state, much more than they did when I was in school. They taught me black history, but the teachers were white. All of my history teachers throughout school have been phenomenal, that's what made the subject so easy to fall in love with. However, none of them knew what it actually felt like to be black in Indiana, and sometimes, the only black kid in the class.

I grew up in Lawrence Township, I tested into this accelerated learning program, it was called STRETCH. Even though I went to school with a lot of black people, the majority of my classmates were white. Then I went on to Cathedral, which is pretty diverse in my opinion, but in the actual classroom, I wasn't around too many people that looked like me.

When black history was discussed in school, it was never told in full, it was as sugar coated as full order of French Toast. I just had to know more, 'why this?', 'why that?', but I felt uncomfortable asking deeper questions, especially to my classmates and teachers.

Whatever we'd talk about in school, or whatever they'd give us on some effortlessly made black history worksheet wasn't enough for me. I wanted to know more so I taught myself. And it's not hard, it's never been hard, I simply look for what I want to know until I find it.

Now I guess I'm teaching you, well I'm really still teaching myself, I'm just doing it a way that allows all my followers to see. The first time I did a history story on this platform it was my 3 minute video about Indiana's early black history, followed by a series of short videos dedicated to the topic.

I've put all my stories that have to do with Indiana's black history, including my own personal historical journey into a new tab on the site: https://www.through2eyes.com/blog/categories/blackhomeagain

I've been conflicted about not saying anything about Black History Month until now, but I'm also grateful that I'm the one that gets to tell the story. For so long my ancestors were denied the access to the fundamentals of education such as reading and writing.

So I spend my free time reading and writing, making sure our history will be preserved and told in a way that inspires us. So I've got a few more stories to share this month, and all they'll be under this tab, black home again.

Oh yeah, and if you that logo and phrase I came up with: https://www.through2eyes.com/fillthebag/Black-Home-Aga-IN-Hoodie-p173345284