“I think it’s ludicrous. Because we have to make up our minds, either we want segregation or integration, and if we don’t want segregation, we need to get rid of channels like BET and the BET awards, and the Image Awards, where you’re only awarded if you’re black. If it were the other way around, we’d be up in arms. It’s a double standard… Just like there shouldn’t be a black history month, you know, we’re Americans. Period.” Stacey Dash elicited this controversial remark of the month in response to the decision of a few within black Hollywood to boycott the approaching Oscars for its “whitewashed” nature, this comment, no doubt, warranted the attention Ms. Dash seemingly wanted. Spoken a few weeks ago on Fox’s ‘Fox and Friends’ segment and begrudging as it was to bear, what concerned me was not this, but that a good bit of the population actually agreed. Baffling!
Furthermore, a few months back I was told the Texas Board of Education was considering substantial changes to the curriculum, garnering a more conservative framework. This meaning, turning what we know as the “Triangular slave Trade”, to the easier to divulge “Atlantic Triangular Trade,” fostering more swept under the rug content than ever before. It was even said to have gone as far as recounting the slave as an indentured servant– a lowly, but payed occupation, again placing African Americans in the light most convenient to America’s predisposed, “home of the brave, land of the free” connotation. Many changes were solidified as “textbook fact” and some tossed. Moral of story, don’t trust the truth just anyone gives you kids.
Now, though the conception of black history was not slavery. Yes, you heard me correct, the beginning of black history was not slavery. Do some research while you’re gawking at the fact- This monumental travesty in our history simply cannot be written out or passed off as something else. Blood on the leaves of the American tree does not wash away on a rainy day. America was built, without compensation, on the backs of African Americans. Other national contributions from music, to literature, paved the way for most Caucasians to bring America the sounds and style so near and dear to their hearts today, since of course America couldn’t always handle the thought of it coming from a black person.
These are the reasons why the celebration of Black history month cannot and should not be disbanded.
Yes, we would be up in arms if there was a white history month because there is no fight for that history to be prevalent, no threat to white out the contributions Caucasians have made to this nation, no exclusion ever. Give you a month so there is equality and complete integration among races? If there was a month dedicated to the history of white people it would in fact tip the already leaning scale over in their direction. It would not provide equality.
Yes, in order for there to be equality for all, attention does need to be drawn away from race, as a halt to the things that place consistent divisions and ultimately bring about the maladaptive thoughts keeping us at ends with each other on things. In order for us all to even begin to consider that though, we have to stop trying to erase the things that did happen, we need to continue to give credit where it is so substantially due, and we need to allow for a life free of superiority and inferiority complexes to ensue.
Carter G. Woodson, along with a committee of other individuals prominent in the black community head started in 1926 what was then Negro history week and now Black History Month. They chose February to coincide with the birthdays of social reformer, orator and writer Frederick Douglas, and 16 president as well as Emancipation Proclamation extraordinaire Abraham Lincoln. There was a journal made at this time for blacks to begin writing themselves into the history that unapologetically left them out at all instances, now The Journal of African American History. To this day, many things cannot any longer and will not be documented as the works and contributions of African American heroes, pioneers, and American legends, which is why Black history Month is necessary until further notice of an equal playing field for all races to be heard and read about.
An African proverb states, “Until the lion learns how to write, every story will glorify the hunter.” So as I write, giving voices to those opinions that don’t take the chance to uplift the truth from its overlooked roots, read and be inspired to go beyond the words. Spread what you believe, challenge me if you disagree. But let the truths you hold be self-evident, such as mine.