The Bud Billiken Parade is this Weekend!

I'm not a fan of crowds anymore, so I avoid parades these days. Even when I went to parades, for me, they were really more about the food/music at the terminal point of the parade.

I've been to the Pride, the Chinatown, the Asia on Argyle, the Puerto Rican, and the Bud Billiken parades.

I've been to the Asia on Argyle parade twice because I live next to it and it is really just an excuse for me to go and eat Chinese/Vietnamese/Thai food. I like the dragon dance and the fire crackers so I stop to watch that. I've been to the pride parade twice, mainly because, it used to start down the street from me and I liked the party atmosphere.

I've only been to the Bud Billiken parade once, but I have watched it on TV several times and I will probably watch it again. It's this weekend btw. Yay!

As it happens, the Bud Billiken parade terminates in Washington Park, which is a beautiful park that I played in as a child and even fished the lagoons of with my parents.  We only caught blue gills and didn't eat them.  It is an Olmsted designed park as part of the Burnham plan, so it is really stunning and it connects to Jackson park via the Midway Plaisance. This is part of Chicago's "emerald necklace" of parks and boulevards which you can see quite nicely on the Boulevard Bike tour, but I digress. One more thing, there used to be this AWESOME part of Washington park called "Adventure Playland" when I was a kid with a giant rocket ship slide maybe. Apparently, rocket ships/missiles were quite popular in parks as a result of the cold war.

Getting back to the Bud Billiken parade, it really is a wonderful expression of community and of Chicago south side black culture, and if you watch it on TV you can see that an enormous amount of practice and work has gone into preparing the musical and dance performances.

And that's my one reservation about the Bud Billiken parade. 

The Bud Billiken parade is billed as a "kick off to the school year" parade where school supplies and backpacks are handed out, but I don't think this is enough, and I have to ask the unpleasant question: 

Is this really helping our students do better in school?

I will be honest and ask the question that really concerns me: 

Is preparing for the parade really helping students with subjects like math and computer science for example?

Nobody likes it when I ask these questions, so it is probably just as well that nobody reads this blog. I will go further and say the following:

THE SELF ESTEEM AND DISCIPLINE GAINED FROM THE EXPERIENCE OF PREPARING FOR THE PARADE IS NOT LIKELY TO SIGNIFICANTLY HELP A STUDENT DO BETTER AT MATH IN THE UPCOMING SCHOOL YEAR.

I doubt anybody will listen to this now, but my goal is to send a message into the future: I would suggest that participation in the parade be tied to participation in some sort of academic enrichment activities, perhaps in math and computer science for example, just to pick two random subjects.

Finally, lest it sound like I am coming down on music and dancing, au contraire. I have always regarded the Bud Billiken parade as being in the tradition of  "Carnaval" which can be found throughout the African diaspora. I always thought these festivals originated in west Africa, but the internet says that they have roots in pagan Europe. That sounds like it could be white washing however since I am quite certain that we know how to party all by ourselves.

As usual, my beef is when non-academic activities (sports, dancing, etc...) are pursued to the exclusion of academic activities.

In any case, thank you Robert Abbott and congratulations on 95 years of history.