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Schomburg: The Puerto Rican Who Helped Build Black History · D-constructing Topics

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What's going on, everybody? And what's going on, folks?
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My name is David, and I'm your legendary, legendary, legendary host of the Deconstructing
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Topic Podcast, where we grab a topic and we just, like, deconstruct it, so we can learn.
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And, you know, that's what this Deconstructing Topic Podcast is.
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know what else you need. You need to fulfill your mind with knowledge.
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You need inspiration. You need a little bit of everything. You want to kind
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of like, let me wake up to learn something.
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See, this is what my podcast brings. And that's why I always say,
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hey, helping me is helping you.
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And once again, once you listen to this podcast, hit the like, share.
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Today, we got a good one. Today, we got a good one. Today I'm doing a little
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Black History Month with a little bit of Puerto Rican flavor.
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Ooh, ooh, did I catch your attention?
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Yes, I did. Let's go.
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Oh, it's the Deconstructed Topping Podcast once again. I'm the legendary host
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of this legendary podcast.
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Please feel free that when you're listening to this, you're going to be like,
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hey, no matter whether you're from the Black community, Puerto Rican,
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the whole Latino, You know, anywhere you're listening to, gather your family,
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gather everybody, you know, and be like, oh, man, what are we learning? What kind of twist?
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It's not even a twist. The kind of good education that I'm going to learn that
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it's Black History Month here in the United States in the month of February.
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And we'll touch that as well. Because shout out, and I will be most likely doing a podcast.
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Shout out to the father of the, it's considered Black History Month,
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but it's actually something that started back in the 1920s.
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I believe it was 1926 or somewhere, the Negro History Week.
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I want people to listen that I said Negro History Week.
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It is something that back then, it's the word that they used.
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And it was part of the, it was part of the association of study of American,
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African-American life history.
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And he is the father of black history, Carter Woodson.
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So shout out to Carter Woodson, because once again, I'm one to say is this, right?
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You know, some people are people that might know, well, you know,
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well, why we only get one month and all that. You know, black history is American
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history and so on. And I said, look, I'm all for that.
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And in the heels of the Super Bowl, where the Puerto Rican artist,
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Bad Bunny entertainer was doing his thing. He got attention. I always say it's this.
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Seize the moment or wherever the attention is, because at the end,
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look, listen, there's a controversy is better than no controversy, right?
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I think there was a famous resident manager that said that controversy is better
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there's no controversy because controversy creates cash.
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And I'm not saying that this is controversial topic or anything like that.
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But what I'm saying is this, that.
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Whether it's good or bad attention, it's still attention instead of no attention. You understand?
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So we're going to bring this up together. I'm not going to try to Puerto Ricanize
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the Black History Month, because it is belong to that in that spectrum.
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But I will add a little bit of flavor.
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And I'm not here to do the Fat Joe and some of these Puerto Rican grifters out
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there who want to fight with the Black community about who started hip-hop and
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why Puerto Ricans don't get that much shot and all that. And I'm like, you know what?
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Relax. You know what happened in the last two years? Again, and I'm just bringing
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this up in the halftime show in the last two years.
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You had a hip-hop artist, Kendrick, last year.
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And then this year, you had a Puerto Rican, Bad Bunny. What I'm saying to you is that relax.
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There's enough room for everybody.
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And fat, Joe, relax. Stop Puerto Ricanize everything that, oh,
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yo, we deserve more attention and more than we find in hip-hop.
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I'm like, look, listen, that's another different topic.
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Sometimes those grifters out there in my community they
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even yo they'll some of these grifters will even turn
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asian heritage mom to puerto rican heritage mom they'll be like well because
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of puerto ricos there wouldn't be no chinese food i'm like yo really relax anyways
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let's get to the show we are talking about none other than alturo alfonso schomberg
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that's correct alturo alfonso in Schaumburg, you'd probably be like,
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Schaumburg doesn't sound like a typical Spanish.
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No, no. So let me tell you something. Turo Alfonso was born in Puerto Rico.
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Back in the 1870s and so on. And look, listen, back then, you have to understand,
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there was a lot of things going on, especially with technology.
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And when I say technology, there were certain things that was happening, right?
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So people would travel across the globe. And then, you know,
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my understanding is that,
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you know, he was a son of a Puerto Rican merchant, you know,
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who just happened to have German descent and Afro-American, you know,
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who happened to have, you know, some of their European, you know, all that connection.
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Because again, And those powers that be at that time, they were just all over
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the place trying to so-called conquer.
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So we got a little bit of the Danish, you know, Netherlands,
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Spanish, German, whatever.
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You already know. You get the idea. But I do the funds to Schomburg to why he's
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in this conversation with Black History Month.
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And some call him. He's part of the, again, we're going to give a shout out to Carter Woodson.
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That's for sure But we always want to acknowledge That the Puerto Rican and
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the Black connection Has been long ways from back in the days And one of the
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things that I always say Is that wherever the Black community goes The Puerto Rican community goes.
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And vice versa. And that's where we got to coexist somewhere.
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We got to, I think that we got to bring more of this, let's say my podcast and
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more of other things where we could connect because there's a deep connection.
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And I'm going to say this.
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So I'll give you like a brief recap because we're definitely going to talk about
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Dudo Alfonso Schomburg and what his work did with the Black History Month.
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I actually ordered a shirt. I try to get this shirt as independent merchant
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as I can, those who have ties to it.
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So hopefully I'll get it. I'll be representing some couple of events.
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You know, again, in my perspective, I say Puerto Rican.
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We are reaping the benefits that now we got a little bit of attention from the Super Bowl.
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Let's educate the masters. And one thing that we go back to,
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why the Puerto Rican and the black community, they're so tight, right?
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Now, I can make an, I don't want to make an argument, But I could just say is
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this, if you look at these groups, what they call marginalized groups,
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you know, Latinos, let's say Mexican, Dominicans.
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South American, Central American,
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Puerto Ricans obviously have been the closest to the black community.
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Because one of the things is that United States and the Jones Act in 1917 provided
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Puerto Ricans to become citizens.
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Sadly, the caveat to that is that, hey, they're going to get citizens,
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but we need 30 of your sons to go,
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30,000 of your sons to go out there on World War I and fight for our fight,
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you know, fight for our on behalf of whatever it is of the imperial United States.
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Basically, that's what it came down to.
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And there was that little combination of Operation Bootstrap. So we got there.
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Now, keep in mind that the marginalized groups back then in the 1910s,
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20s, 30s, 40s, 50s was a little bit different because the black community,
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not only you had the black community, you had the Italian, the Irish,
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Puerto Rican, obviously,
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a little bit of the Mexicans coming in, trickling after the American Mexican
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Revolution in the early 1900s or even, I think, a little bit after.
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And you had them, but for some reason, I'm going to go on a little bit.
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And I'm going to say that the black community gravitated to the Puerto Ricans
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because you got to keep them on this dish, right?
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What is black? You know, people are going to be like, well, what is black?
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You know, is there a definition to it? Sure. But you already know the skin color,
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it's the primary thing there.
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And if you look at the black community, if you look at all these communities
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that I just mentioned, the only community or the group of people that seem they're
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a little as close to our skin color.
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And we do have black Puerto Ricans, a little bit of darker side, beautiful skin.
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You already know, black don't crack many times.
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My mother is dark skin and she don't crack at all.
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Jeez, I bless mama out there. But I'm just saying a little bit on the lighter
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side, I'm going to kind of crack.
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But anyways, you get to just, you understand?
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And And then we got that thing where there's that relation, like, okay.
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And then the music, you know, there was all that. So that's where the black
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and Puerto Rican community stood.
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So to give you that little background, where Arturo Alfonso Schomburg comes in with Carter Woodson.
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These are both figures that basically the premise of Black History Month is
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that, and I'll give you an example, Brother Malcolm X, the famous speech.
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When he said, excuse me, when he said, your last name could have been Smith,
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Power, or Jones, basically was a speech leading to, you know,
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what is your name? What is your last name? What is your name?
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Especially those slaves coming from Africa.
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Where it's like, oh, okay, we don't know about history. Oh, so since you guys
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don't know about your histories, you know, sadly, really just got burned.
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You already know. Because sometimes, hey, the person with Power tends to erase history.
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Sometimes I always tell my community for those white folks out there listening
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too, don't get offended, but for the most part, if you don't know your history
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the white man's going to create it for you not be straight up so basically,
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Arturo Fonzo Schomburg and Carter Woodson these are beautiful people that took
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their time and read see the internet didn't exist back then we got the internet
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if the internet existed back then, maybe it did who knows, but I'm just saying,
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these individuals would have been.
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Dig it so it was a little bit harder to dig the history and
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their purpose is that no no we do have a history we
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do that there is just because my last name is woodson might come from you know
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european heritage or something that affects schomburg we do have our roots rooted
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to africa and other parts of the world it's beautiful history black history is beautiful history,
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Latino community or Latino history month, Hispanic Heritage Month is beautiful
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history. It's human history.
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But the thing is that people be like, well, history is history.
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And this happened in other.
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No, no. Again, when the conquerors decide to do these things and forget about
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your history and erase it, oh, we need to put in that work.
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And that's where I do that fun to Schaumburg comes in.
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Now, they were about, I believe they were about the same age,
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but Schomburg passed away.
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We do have a, what they call the Harlem Research Black Culture in Harlem,
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Malcolm X Boulevard, if I'm not mistaken.
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And Schomburg came here. So he was born in Puerto Rico once again.
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And I apologize that sometimes, I'm trying to tackle a little bit of everything,
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and I'm not trying to be all over the place.
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But I want to sometimes drop a little background so we could understand where
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we at and why this is important. because I always said Black History Month,
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by all means, there's some people that are going to knock it, you know, whatever.
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But hey, listen, at the end of the day, it ain't like this country just decided,
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oh, let's give you guys a little bone here, be happy.
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No, no, there's people that put in work.
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Carter Woods put in work. Lots of work, lots of time, a lot of studies.
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So there's a dude Alphonse Schomburg. But once again, credit is, credit is due.
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But I want to just remind people at least not just remind people but the,
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connection is deep like the black in the Puerto Rican community it's not about
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just hip-hop you know you bring in DJ Kool Hurt you know Jamaican descent or
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so on and so forth yeah we could go on and on again it's deeper deeper deep
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connection and with Shamba coming in at a young age you know it sometimes I feel like,
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That's me coming down here or coming from Puerto Rico at a young age.
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I saw things different. I saw things from the outside in.
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And I also was one that gravitated to our history because my history with the black community.
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And I gravitated to help the black community because sometimes,
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sadly, and I'll be straight up, there are those people who open the door because
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you, hey, a little bit lighter.
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That's just the truth. Whether you're in the left, right, whatever it is,
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progressive, conservative, you know, white folks tend to still don't know how
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to act when it comes to people of color. You understand?
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But they would be okay if you're lighter. You see what I'm saying?
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So I'm one to say, listen, I get it. But so I saw that in the system when I
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came to the United States.
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Like, wow, a lot of the black community, black sisters and young brothers, they are drunk.
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You know, something's going on. And it feels, it's not that it feels,
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you could just see that something just seemed to be designed to be against them.
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And I'm living in New York City.
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New York City is one of more liberal Democrat cities.
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And again, I'm just stating the facts, but it seems that black people are still in the bottom.
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But we need to fix that. We need to connect, all the connections,
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because we all have each other. And Schumberg coming in, doing his thing.
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And look, he's working banks. if I'm not mistaken, but he put in that work,
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especially if you are in the African diaspora,
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which is those black communities that are here that still felt like,
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ah, we might not belong here.
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But you see, that's the thing where these individuals, like,
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if you're feeling lost because you feel like you're in this country,
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but because you don't know exactly your history,
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Then these two individuals come in And they put in that work Trust me There's
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a lot of black historians,
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Puerto Rican Mexican You know Trust me They put in a lot of work A lot of black
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historians Put in a lot of work So you can understand Where you come from Because
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if you don't know Where you come from.
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Guess what? Again, they're going to tell you where you come from.
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They're going to tell you this is your home. And rightfully so. We live in America.
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Rightfully so. This is your home. United States of America.
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Rightfully so. But don't forget the roots. Many people in this country,
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whether you're Irish descent, Italian descent, Polish, Italian, African, Chinese.
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There's a lot of people that are born here that are probably to be American,
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but they would not forget their elders. and they will not forget where they came from.
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Because a lot of times you are judged by where you came from and by your background
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or whatever it is that you ask as a sub-born.
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So it's one of those things that, once again, a lot of people tend to,
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when it comes to Black History Month, listen, Carter Woodson put in work.
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Don't dismiss his eye like, ah, man, but there was a Puerto Rican. Relax.
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There was a Puerto Rican. It looks like there's a Puerto Rican everywhere, right?
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But just because these two individuals, they collaborated with each other.
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Once again, it's one of those beautiful things where I do it off Alfonso Schomburg.
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I mean, I believe that he passed away a little bit earlier than Carter Woodson.
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I think that he was a little bit sick and so on and so forth.
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So they dedicated themselves to make sure that they have this where people can
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go, let's say, to Harlem, to the research culture.
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And this is even online. And now that you're listening to me,
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you could go up, drop the links here.
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Is that it's beautiful to know these cultures because there's beautiful men
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from that time where there was segregation and probably lynching was still a
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thing back in the 10s, in the 1920s, 30s, whatever.
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They still put in that work.
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And, you know, for, let's say, in the case of Arturo Fonsus Samba,
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who built basically a library, a library.
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You're going to start seeing because, again, our history is beautiful.
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Black history is beautiful.
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And I'm hoping to bring a little bit more of the black because there's a lot
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of black events. There's a lot of products out there that you'd be like, ah.
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But again, and I, hey, listen, and even sometimes, too, there is grifting in the black community.
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Hey, listen, I'm one to call it out. I'm not trying to be like,
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ah, I'm not trying to be insensitive.
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I think somebody was making fun of someone who said,
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oh, you know, black people created hockey and so on but then to come and find
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out that there was a group of black men in Canada that did embrace hockey and
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might have turned it into maybe something more modern but it doesn't mean that
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the events of hockey you know there's a commercial I remember.
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There was a commercial out there where I think they were knocking on America
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where it's like, oh, America invented this, but we made it better, right?
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And this is like the companies, let's say the Sonys from Japan,
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Samsung from Korea, where you got this TV from United States, Western House.
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I don't even think that exists, but they made it better.
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Again, that division, relax, we get it.
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But just the same as Certain culture Certain things that black people invented,
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Sometimes black people made it better It is true And
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just as Puerto Ricans Were there as well But we making it happen I'm glad that
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people Listen to this podcast Because again We got a little bit of A little
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bit of As we call it A little bit of stew A little bit of everything I just
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wanted to point people out And just to make sure That we know now,
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Who's Arturo Alfonso Schomburg If you're in New York City, most likely you have
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heard the name because of the library.
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But sadly, when it comes to Black History Month, you know, we kind of don't
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talk more about, you know, the individuals and the individual,
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Carter Woodson, behind this whole thing.
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You know, we could engage and go on and coach because, you know,
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there's a lot of these black scholars that we need to know because,
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trust me, trust me, a lot of these folks just put in work.
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A lot of these men and women, they put in work so we could know where we came from.
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So that someone don't come and tell you, oh, you don't got no history because
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let's say you came from a slave or a shard of slave or you came from Puerto
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Rico where the United States, you know, sees you as a colony and a military base or something.
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Just because they already label you some type of title don't mean that there was no history.
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There is. It's always beautiful. It's always righteous. Let's make it happen.
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So once again Arturo Alfonso Schomburg And Carter Woodson Is what we studied
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today What you learned today Put in some work to get to know more of these individuals,
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And you know Schomburg from Puerto Rico Born in Puerto Rico And passed away
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here in New York City Some parallels,
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With me and him So we'll talk about that But make it happen Hope you enjoy Once
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again hit the like share all that good stuff because we making it happen we
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staying legendary and i'm out of here please enjoy the podcast once again subscribe
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you already know make it happen i'm out peace.