The Hot Seat: Black History Month

'Black History Month' is an unveiling. It's about the victory over a corrupt and cruel society that shrouded every moment and aspect of a people and their culture. It is about opening the door and viewing the truth in it's glorious abundance. Most importantly, it is about making sure that door gets ripped off it's hinges..

Being an elementary school art teacher in a Dept of Defense schools system, I can proudly say that I am frequently able to expose my students to the accomplishments of people of color..I make it my responsibility to teach my children the importance of equality in races. I not only do this during the month of February, I do it all year long..
I guess its good though, to have a special month set aside so that there is awareness.. Its a forced kind of thing but one that SHOULD be,,
I'm white, born in 1955 and was able to see with my own eyes as a child, some of the injustices done to my darker sisters & brothers...I am happy to see the slow (but steady) changes and I'm happy to be given the opportunity to do my small part....

It's a time for us Black Americans to find ways to get along with one another, like MLK jr and the African Bantu Stephen Biko; Also the late Tupac Shukar...are my faves

Until the history books are accurately rewritten to include all non-white contributions, Black History Month will continue to have a purpose. Non-white children have a right to know that there are heroes that resemble them. The History Channel (My favorite.) is really bad when it comes to showing non-white contributions to history.

So, to answer your question: What does Black History Month mean to me? It means that "I, too am America." (Langston Hughes)

I will support a "White History Month" after our alien overlords come to earth and enslave us. Until then, we are & have been the dominant culture in this country where white history has been "the history" for most of our nation's existence according to the history texts used from elementary school through college. Hence the need for "Black History Month." You really think that Greek, Roman, Western European and American history has ignored or downplayed the contributions of Caucasians?

Black history month is great. I always forget when White History Month is though, anyone out there remember ? Oh I forgot, IF there was one, then that would be considered RACIST !!

As a historian I understand the need to have a month where we focus on the unique culture of African-Americans as they struggled against the oppression of slavery up until the end of the Civil War and then the next hundred years of systematic legal discrimination (Jim Crow laws, legal lynching, "separate but equal, etc.) forcing them to be 2nd class citizens. Sadly, while technically legal discrimination ended with the passage of the Civil Rights laws of the 60's the very real specter of racism still permeates the relationship between blacks and other races, especially whites.

As a 42-year old white male, I was fortunate enough to grow up after the integration of schools & other institutions so I had friends who happened to be black and I didn't know enough as a youth to hate them because they had darker skin than I did. While racial discrimination wasn't overt, the culture of the region where I grew up taught me that (insert "n" word here) were different from us white folk, they were lazy, did drugs, had children out of wedlock, engaged in criminal behavior, deserved the poverty stricken conditions they often lived in. etc. etc. but as I got older I noticed that the very things I was taught that made blacks lesser beings turned out to be the reality of the white culture in rural Appalachia where I grew up. I knew many white people in our community who were lazy, faked injury to get on disability, grew & smoked weed, made & did crystal meth, guys who knocked up girls but who never married any of them or paid child support, folks who committed crimes against their family & friends, lived in abject impoverished conditions while being on the public dole, who attended church while engaging in behaviors that violated every major commandment found in the Bible, etc.

Thanks to my awareness of the hypocrisy of those who were bigots I came to understand that we are all human beings. We are defined by our experiences and how we react to the situation we find ourselves born into. I look forward to the day where having Black History Month is no longer considered relevant to our cultural reality. Until we can judge our fellow citizens by the content of their character rather than by the color of their skin we still need to be educated about the culture of the minorities in our great nation. As racial demographics evolve in the coming 50 years, I do see the day coming where the long held white male dominance in our society will naturally pass into history. Maybe when this demographic shift happens that we will regard ourselves as Americans without needing to put any qualifier in front of that self-definition. As long as racism continues to be a powerful cultural force in America, we will have minorities who feel the need to identify themselves as African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Latinos, etc.

As for me, I learned that growing up in an overwhelmingly conservative Caucasian dominated culture is not conducive for personal growth & understanding. I moved away from rural Appalachia to escape that suffocating mindset. I now live in the multi-racial city of New Orleans with its diverse culture. While things have changed since the levee failures after Katrina, I wouldn't trade being amongst the amazing diversity here for any other place in America. When one embraces the diversity found in the human race we can discover our own unique identities for the very first time. I am disappointed I won't live long enough to see humanity advance to the day where the color of a person's skin no longer impacts how he (or she) is treated by society.

This is what Black History Month means to me.

I am sorry that we still need to have a Black History Month as well but we still desperately need it. It is the only time that many of us learn anything about the infinite contributions of Black people, not only in this country but around the world. This is threatening to people of many races, including Black people, who have become accustomed to a white supremacist capitalist patriarchy [see bell hooks] where revisionist history is the order of the day. This is not about differentiating ourselves--that is done daily when we are followed in stores, beaten and murdered by police, and assumed to be ignorant and inferior. For people like Amos Wilson, Marcus Garvey, Ida B. Wells, and Nat Turner, whom I never learned about in school, I am thankful that there are at least 28 days out of the year when their/our stories are deemed worthy.

I'm sorry we still have a Black History Month. I thought black people had advanced enough spiritually and in stature and that they no longer need to differentiate themselves from white Americans. In other words, It is all American History as we are all just Americans. Of all the black people I know, not one's parents or grandparents were born in Africa. I was born outside of the United States and so were my parents, may they rest in peace, but I am not a Latin American or a European American. I am simply an American, as are all of my black friends.

Black history means so many things, but more than ever we need to start from this moment forward to accurately define Black history, we still do not have a black President in power (we have a man of color, a biracial man), but we are not being truthful in our dipiction of black history for our future

http://battlecatt.com/videoproduction/index.php?/Blog/the-evolution-of-racial-identityequality.html

Go to Youtube and check out "Biracial Not Black Damn It" on battlecatt17's channel

Cool video. I'm glad for Black History Month. As an American, as painful as it is, I never want to forget the fact that my nation once kept human slaves. That is for our eternal shame, but the fact that we gpt past it (and nearly destroyed ourselves in the process) should be a source of some pride.

MLK and Malcolm X told it how it was (and still is in too many ways) not just for blacks but the poor and underprivileged as well.

Black History Month - necessary and appreciated. Thanks.

The TV presentation is great. This the 1st time that I
discovered Current Vanguard. I have place this website
in my favorites. Keep up the good work.

Thanks & Shalom,
Leon Wallace

thank God we have African Americans, we owe them so much!!!! Our struggles for freedom, justice, music, faith in God, family values...I live in Oakland, CA and respect Black people; when i go back east, as a white person, i feel totally wierd being among so many white people!
I am so grateful to Dr. King, Obama, Aretha and Angela...there are sooooooooooo many models of leadership, courage, strength and talent. One month is not enough!!!!
PS: I would like encourage Asians and Latinos to remember that they have benefitted so much from what Blacks have won for all people of color. They really deserve thanks and admiration from all of us.

Carter woodson picked that month because feb. is the birthday month of abe lincoln and frederick douglous

Why does it just so happen that the shortest month of the year is black history month? Huh? Riddle me that...