For the history portion of Moonflower's homeschool, I'm not focusing on the typical school history. We're already living, witnessing and re-living everything this country was founded on. The young people have grown up under utter political and national truth of what this nation is, so the fake stories that we learned in school certainly won't hold up by any young person who watches TikTok. They actually learn a lot about true history and other cultural events, I guess you could say "Social Studies," from TikTok.

It be tripping me out how much Moonflower (14) already knows, how many terms she's familiar with, how many historical figures and other educational concepts she knows from TikTok and YouTube. 😄

So our history and Social Studies portion for homeschooling focuses on Black Americans and music.
Black people and music are a foundational part of American and world culture.

So, today:
+I told her that the Super Bowl is coming up and someone is always selected to sing the National Anthem 

+I asked if she remembered Whitney Houston and she did, however, I know there's a lot more work to do regarding teaching her about Black American musicians.

✅Ain't that something that Michael Jackson's movie comes out this year.

1991 Super Bowl XXV 

Okay, so, I mentioned that I was 14, and this was during the Gulf War.
I was very conflicted and not into the whole yellow ribbon thing and other pro-American view points.

I just wanted peace. And to me, that didn't have anything to do with being American. How about, just stop the wars? I didn't need to be "proud to be an American" to value peace and safety. This was the first active war of my lifetime. 

The mental training was heavy and relentless, every where I turned there was something about how we are the best nation, or proud to be an American, or just all types of national and war talk with the view that we are so awesome and innocent and saving the world. And I'm like, is this the same country? How am I supposed to believe this?

Too Smart for My Own Good

And at 14, and being tortured and obsessed by global human injustices since age 12, I could not accept the proud to be American, red, white blue and all that. But, I still hated that the other countries were also bad. So I was very torn and lost regarding how to make sense of what was happening.

Did I mention I was 14? Yes, 14 felt like 24. But that is how I was starting at age 12, I aged very very rapidly lolol.

Despite the turmoil with feeling like I am supposed to accept my country as always right and godly, I was definitely heartbroken and worried about soldiers losing their lives over there. So, that alone made me accept whatever messages the media was throwing out there. 

I ended up writing in my diary about how worn out and depressed I was about the war, and how I couldn't wait for it to end.

Watching Whitney Houston Sing the National Anthem

This was the first time I ever felt American. Everything I just said above was on my mind watching one of my favorite artists ever, Whitney. 
She's such a huge part of my childhood.

Watching her perform this historical moment, all of my difficult emotions combined and for the first time I felt like, "I do belong here." And when her angelic voice ends, so does that feeling of hope and belonging in this nation.
 
I'm not talking about belonging in my neighborhood and school, of course I 100% loved my environment and my life when I was little. Those are personal spaces. I'm talking about, never feeling like I belonged once I stepped outside my own personal world.

And I'll always feel that way and I'm completely fine with that. I know who I am, and I don't need man-made national borders and titles to define my worth. I'm good. 

But, Whitney 🌹🌹🌹🌹I'm a big Whitney fan so, it'll take too much to go into all that. Let's just say Whitney 🌹🌹🌹💙💙💙💙

Whitney Houston's 1991 Super Bowl XXV National Anthem performance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_lCmBvYMRs

I knew I was going to cry since it was my first time watching this with Moonflower! And knowing that this was her first time watching