“Black History Month, or National African American History Month, is an annual celebration of achievements by black Americans and a time for recognizing the central role of African Americans in U.S. history.”
My honest opinion on black history month, is that I think it’s quite sad and kind of pathetic. To me, black history month, is just a way of saying:
“we are uncomfortable with presenting history in a way which doesn’t always favour us and that doesn’t tell as much of the truth as it can, so we are going to give you a month where we tell a half truth which satisfies most less knowledgable people. Now that we’ve given you a whole month, you can’t call us racist.”
So what about the rest of the year? Why can’t you just present history properly as it is, all year round? Are we only worth a month?
The fact that we’re only given a month, really indicates how much you really value and treat us, because the source of our struggle is found in our history, and you only give us a month? Why isn’t it part of a national curriculum?
Now don’t get me wrong, I really appreciate Black History Month. I think that it’s important that we have a time, where we take time to fully appreciate and recognise African Americans their achievements and struggles (I’m British, by the way). So, I am not in any way bashing, Black History Month, because it isn’t a bad thing.
However, I do feel that Black History Month is there, so that white people, can tell us to stop talking about racism in the way that we have started to do, because they’ve “already given us a month,” when this discussion, and appreciation should really be a whole year thing. It feels like to me, that we remember all of this good stuff, then once we hit March, we can bury and forget about it again until the following year. Why do we constrict our achievements and history to one month? Why is it that we have to separate our histories and suppress some parts and glorify others?
You have to grow up and face the facts, that white people in history have been pretty crappy and weren’t the inventors and the heroes of everything.
So what do you guys think about Black History Month? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this!
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