Comments on: Black History: The Token Month

By: SpookWhoSatByTheDoor

SpookWhoSatByTheDoor — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:39:46 +0000

The whole thing reminds me of when kids ask why there is a Mother's Day and a Father's Day, but no Kid's Day. The usual response is that "every day is Kid's Day". Same goes for folks that get all indignant / ig'nant and ask why there isn't a White History Month. I say give them what they want.

I'm thinking we should start by creating a "White History Month" where we relegate white history to one month and use the other eleven months (or nine months, if we're talking about school time) to focus on all the other races and cultures that have been excluded from the dialogue.

Probably, it should be White Male History Month (or Rich, White, Male History Month). But, you get the the point. Until we can view contributions of individual groups to American history as deserving to be acknowledged and studied in their own right; the stories of those groups will only be regarded as sidebars to what most people consider American History.

By: kos

kos — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 16:21:40 +0000

Black History Month is still needed. If only for the reason that Black History isn't taught in most schools today as it is. Even when it is taught, it's awfully limited. I agree, I'd rather it be bundled into American History, but most teachers won't do that because they grew up with the notion that Black History is taught in February as separate from American History. (Don't even get me started about how screwed up and skewed American History in general is.)

By: sableverity

sableverity — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 07:57:43 +0000

Yup, did this last year. Sadly, I'll be doing it every year. Here's a question for you- should we wait for integrated history, and stick with BHM until then, or scrap BHM to create a heightened need for integrated history?

By: Black History: The Token Month | FreshXpress.:.The PULSE of Young Black America

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 10:02:05 +0000

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By: SpookWhoSatByTheDoor

SpookWhoSatByTheDoor — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 03:58:01 +0000

My first post on the new site. I like the look.

Back to the topic: I seem to recall you doing this topic last year – not that there' anything wrong with that. It's worth revisiting. I'll give you half a "second". I agree with all of your points, but I'm just not ready to let go of Black History month (warts and all) until we are closer to having a fully integrated American History. Unfortunately, for all of the progress we have made to that end, I'm afraid we still have too far to go. My concern is that if we give up the effort to maintain even token recognition without something else in place, things will just revert back to the way they were.

Anyway, that's my two cents.

(oh, and the 20 character limit for names is bumming me out)