Can we finally merge "Black" & American History?

[fabulouslyghetto]

Is Black History Month outdated?

Hell yes! I appreciate black history month for what it was and what it's supposed to be, but it was created during a time when it was reasonable (PLEASE take that in context) to segregate and distinguish black Americans from "regular" Americans. With Obama's win aren't we a bit late in our failure to merge black history with American history?

BHM trivializes and specializes black contrbutions. Many people believe it's only about honoring slavery, they completely ignore that, from day one, blacks Americans have been right alongside their white counterparts contributing to medicine, technology, science, and especially the arts. The average American home is litered with products that directly or indirectly contain components of black inventions, and black Americans influence in the arts and culture are front and center almost as soon as you step out the house. There is too much to black American history to realistically expect it to be compacted into the shortest month of the year, and why does it STILL need to be separated?

This "celebration" of our history has fallen on exceptionally deaf ears in the black community. Many black teens and even adults can't name any historical black figures other than the household names, King, Parks, Tubman, etc.. In fact, many blacks are racist towards the black community, believing that we have done nothing but consume welfare dollars, they're unaware of the greatness of their heritage.

I also think there's widespread hypocrisy in the black community, a month-long celebration of our heritage vs. a year-long celebration of all things euro. Supposedly proud blacks spend hundreds of dollars lightening their skin, un-kinking their hair, buying clothes from expensive Italian designers they can't pronounce, and buying costly gadgets and gizmos that go into the pockets of rich white men who do nothing for the community. But we're proud?

DISCLAIMER: THE ARTICLE DOES NOT PROPOSE THAT WE STOP TEACHING BLACK HISTORY, RATHER THAT WE MERGE IT WITH THE REGULAR HISTORY CURRICULUM.

(I've been flamed to high hell because people think I'm saying we need to end all discussion/teachings of black history and accomplishments.)

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-02-07-black-history-month_N.htm

Should Black History Month itself fade into history? Many have long argued that African-American history should be incorporated into year-round education. Now, claims that Black History Month is outdated are gaining a new potency, as schools diversify their curricula and President Barack Obama's election opens a new chapter in the nation's racial journey.

"If Obama's election means anything, it means that African-American history IS American history and should be remembered and recognized every day of the year," says Stephen Donovan, a 41-year-old lawyer.

Ending "paternalistic" observances like Black History Month, Donovan believes, would lead to "not only a reduction in racism, but whites more ready and willing and able to celebrate our difference, enjoy our traditions, without feeling the stain of guilt that stifles frank dialogue and acceptance across cultures."

Yemesi Oyeniyi, a 40-year-old stay-at-home mother, says that Black History Month feels like it's only for blacks, "and therefore fails to educate the masses of non-blacks."

 

[White Eagle]

Re: Can we finally merge "Black" & American Histor

I've been seeing a particular ad on TV that starts out reading Black History then several prominent black people are flashed on the screen then the word Black is replaced with American.
Our history needs to be shown as American history, including all blacks, indian, chinese, euro, etc......

 

[fabulouslyghetto]

Re: Can we finally merge "Black" & American Histor

Our history needs to be shown as American history, including all blacks, indian, chinese, euro, etc......

EXACTLY! BHM promotes the concept of "us" and "them" instead of just one collective "us." It's long overdue that we stop presenting the idea of white as the norm and everything else as a special exception. The purpose of a melting pot is that the ingredients blend. Separating the "ingredients" is exactly what caused the need for this holiday in the first place. Segregation is an exceptionally potent blend of crack-cocaine that many Americans are addicted to. We're obsessed with separating things and distinguishing them, having a "standard" and subsequent "abnormality/exception."

 

[archive]

Re: Can we finally merge "Black" & American Histor

EXACTLY! BHM promotes the concept of "us" and "them" instead of just one collective "us." It's long overdue that we stop presenting the idea of white as the norm and everything else as a special exception. The purpose of a melting pot is that the ingredients blend. Separating the "ingredients" is exactly what caused the need for this holiday in the first place. Segregation is an exceptionally potent blend of crack-cocaine that many Americans are addicted to. We're obsessed with separating things and distinguishing them, having a "standard" and subsequent "abnormality/exception."

if only one learned these tidbits in history class

 

[hotatlboi]

Re: Can we finally merge "Black" & American Histor

I completely agree. The less focus there is on race the better imo.

 

[Kulindahr]

Re: Can we finally merge "Black" & American Histor

if only one learned these tidbits in history class

We did. More recently it hasn't been politically correct.

 

[archive]

Re: Can we finally merge "Black" & American Histor

We did. More recently it hasn't been politically correct.

not what i was going for but i see your point...i meant as in overall...


for whites and blacks(as well as others) to have been here in this country for so long...history class is still basically white.....

 

[kallipolis]

Re: Can we finally merge "Black" & American Histor

We did. More recently it hasn't been politically correct.

Wise! But argumentative.

 

[fabulouslyghetto]

Re: Can we finally merge "Black" & American Histor

for whites and blacks(as well as others) to have been here in this country for so long...history class is still basically white.....

My point exactly (along with the black community's abismal failure to honor the message BEHIND the tradition as opposed to the cheap lip service that BHM elicits).

 

[opinterph]

Re: Can we finally merge "Black" & American Histor

The author of the linked AP article (syndicated in USA Today) is Jesse Washington, Race and Ethnicity Writer for the AP news cooperative. In searching for more information about his biography, I could not help but notice that his name corresponds to that of a young man brutally tortured and killed by an angry mob in Texas, circa 1916. As the article reveals, it was only 10 years after the “Waco Horror” that Carter G. Woodson founded Negro History Week.

To some extent, I find it curious that Mr. Washington does not hazard his own opinion about ending Black History Month (in the linked article), but instead poses the question and proceeds to quote a collection of other persons’ statements on the matter. Having now read several of his other publications, I regard Mr. Washington as a most-interesting reporter. (Thanks to fabulouslyghetto for the introduction.)

In another article published last December, Mr. Washington writes “Racism was defanged by Mr. Obama's triumph, leaving gays as perhaps the last group of Americans claiming their basic rights are being systematically denied.”

With Obama's win aren't we a bit late in our failure to merge black history with American history?

You make an excellent point. Perhaps keyboards everywhere are busy catching up.

 

[fabulouslyghetto]

Re: Can we finally merge "Black" & American Histor


How so? I don't think there's a person alive who would see him and think "There goes a handsome white man."


Meh, for 100+ years you could be raped, enslaved, sold as property, lynched, denied a job, denied the right to marry, denied the right to education, to read for being black.

If someone gets a few extra hundred dollars for their scholarship simply for being black, I see that as the universe balancing itself out, assuming affirmative action lasts as long as slavery did, though that's based on the notion that monetary incentives are an efficient band-aid for diaspora, genocide, and systematic oppression.*

*DISCLAIMER: I don't mean that every white person's job should be given to a black person regardless of abilities, or that blacks should get incentive just for being black across the board.

 

[fabulouslyghetto]

Re: Can we finally merge "Black" & American Histor


Ancestry is only a part of race, "race" is often determined by superficial means, rather than an investigation into ancestry.


Actually that's exactly what it was created to do.

 

[fabulouslyghetto]

Re: Can we finally merge "Black" & American Histor


Agreed. Black Americans sob about their oppression, white Americans sob because they're tired of hearing about it. What else is new.


I don't remember saying they did, but this thread is about an issue regarding the black American community so what does the Holocaust have to do with this? If you'd like to discuss that, feel free to make a new thread.


I wasn't being literal.


Just as often as I see dumb-as-dirt non-minority newscasters who mispronounce names and erroneously misplace countries that some 10 year olds could point out on a map.


I really wish the world were as simple as you're implying, I really do.

 

[fabulouslyghetto]

Re: Can we finally merge "Black" & American Histor

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/slavery1.html

Check it out! When will ObamaCo fix it?

Won't be long, all he's gotta do is suit up to fix a problem.

Interesting how people talk about slavery like it's an archaic concept no longer practiced. We seem to have forgotten why we had BHM in the first place (in the broader sense, including but not limited to slavery).

 

[fabulouslyghetto]

Re: Can we finally merge "Black" & American Histor


I know an entire country full of people that would. You're still reaching here trying to add more depth to the concept of race than what's really there. Race has always been basic, percentages be damned, ancestry be damned, if you look black, you're black. That's how MANY light-skinned Af.Americans escaped persecution for the past 100 years (and on a smaller scale still do). The next best thing to being white is looking white, hence earlier references to blacks who claim to be proud but perm their hair, color it blonde, add tracks, and throw on blue eye contacts.