Do we Really Need a Black People Month?

i don't think anyone, white, black, or otherwise dosen't recognise that blacks were slaves. black history, white history, is all american history. american history month, no problem. i would disagree with any race based recognition of history.

<I consider black history month to be a way of recognising that our country enslaved black people for over 200 years and had to fight the bloodiest war in our nation's history to *almost*NOT* abolish it. If anything, black history month is a way to remind conservatives of their history of inhumanity to man in our short history. >

What about Native American month? Or Chinese imigrant month?

"If anything, black history month is a way to remind conservatives of their history of inhumanity to man in our short history."

Oh give me a flippin break. No conservative today is reposible for slavery 150 years ago. You could just as facilely said that this is a way to remind Democrats of their history of inhumanity by promoting Jim Crow for generations.

Huh? When to bathe? And it is NOT a holiday, how dense IS that skull silly bear.

Don't be ridiculous.

Besides, the people it's intended for would never be able to answer it.

27. Rosa Parks

You forgot Chuck D, Spike Lee, Sidney Poitier, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Dr. Bill Cosby, Marvin J Chomsky, Lucy Parsons, Rosa Parks, Cynthia McKinney blahblahblah...
Yeah, why should we bother dedicated a measly month to the accomplishments of black men and women despite all odds?
Don't worry sheik, i know you could hit 100 off the top of your head easy =)

This is what absolutely fucking KILLS me about this country these days - people, mostly the younger type, have NO respect for any form of struggle in recent history or otherwise. Americans are a bunch of spoiled babyfucks sometimes, whining when their gas price goes up or their iPod dies, yet can't be bothered to pay an effortless respect to people who put their neck on the line for equality and civil liberty.

*************why repubs all like to drive silver mercedes***************

they don't I have two Bmmrs and one toyota truck

I used to drive benzs but in the mid 80's they started screwing up the engines and the cars looked awful.
The 80s was a period of Horrid design for MB.

we must respect the native American
Albert Einstein
the Chinese that help the economy of US to survive
or people from India
or...
the list is to long
and we must be 365 days / year in an non stop party

Look up the definition of racism, you are off base here.

Speaking of lies, for the racist liars and morons who claimed in this thread that Black History Month was a creation of "white liberals" who "gave the black folk their own special holiday":

"Black History Month was established in 1976 by The Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History.[1] The month-long celebration was an expansion of Negro History Week, which was established in 1926 by Carter G. Woodson, director of what was then known as the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. Woodson selected the week in February that embraced the birthdays of both Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. The celebration may have had its origins in the separate efforts of Mary Church Terrell and the African American collegiate fraternity Omega Phi Psi. The former had begun the practice of honoring Frederick Douglass on February 14, the date he used to mark his birth. The Omegas established a "Negro Achievement Week" in 1924. Woodson was friends with Mary Church Terrell and worked with her and the National Council of Colored Women to preserve Douglass' home and personal papers. Woodson was also a member of Omega Psi Phi. While Terrell's celebration of Douglass was a local event and the Omega Achievement Week was part of their community outreach, Woodson broadened the scope of the celebration in three significant ways. First, he conceived of the event as a national celebration, sending out a circular to groups across the United States. Secondly, he sought to appeal to both whites and blacks and to improve race relations. For this reason, he chose President Lincoln's birthday as well as Douglass'. Finally, Woodson viewed Negro History Week as an extension of ASNLH's effort to demonstrate to the world that Africans and peoples of African descent had contributed to the advance of history. Each year, ASNLH would select a national theme and provide scholarly and popular materials to focus the nation's "study" of Negro history. As such, Negro History Week was conceived as a means of undermining the foundation of the idea of black inferiority through popular information grounded in scholarship. The theme, chosen by the founders of Black History Month, for 2007 is "From Slavery to Freedom, Africans in the Americas."

The Negro History Week Movement took hold immediately. At first it was celebrated almost exclusively by African Americans, taking place outside of the view of the wider society. Increasingly, however, mayors and governors, especially in the North, began endorsing Negro History Week and promoting interracial harmony. By the time of Woodson's death in 1950, Negro History Week had become a well-established cultural institution. Indeed, it was so established that Woodson had begun to criticize groups for shallow and often inaccurate presentations that did not advance the public's knowledge of Negro life and history.

With the rise of the Black Power Movement in the 1960s, many in the African American community began to complain about the insufficiency of a week-long celebration. In 1976, the ASNLH, having changed its name to The Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History, responded to the popular call, citing the 50th annual celebration and America's bicentennial. For more on the association visit ASALH.org"

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blac...tory_Month

Normally I'm very wary of quoting wikipedia, but this is entry is accurate as far as any checking I've done shows.

Every month is white dude over 40 month.

One day a long time ago my little brother came home crying from school and told my mom that his friends wouldn't let him play basketball with them. They kept calling him honkey and saying that white guys can't play basketball. He was 5 and didn't even know the difference between a black person and a white person, but someone sure taught all those black kids the difference.

The point is that maybe remembering past troubles doesn't really honor anything, maybe the people that were fighting for civil rights did so because they didn't want their kids growing up thinking they're any different from white kids.

<<institutionalized racism was pandemic right in to the 60s, that is yesterday in historical terms>>

Actually, that is four decades ago in historical terms.

I am completely in favor of teaching people about the history of struggles against institutionalized racism, in regards to all races affected by it. But describing events from four decades ago as if they were yesterday confuses people as to whether they are supposed to feel emotional about them (i.e. angry/resentful/guilty/defensive) or view them objectively as historical events to be learned from.

<<they least we can do is allow a moment of education that they won't hear about in the history books.>>

The Civil Rights movement isn't covered in the main history books? It was when I went to school.

One of the arguments I've seen against black history month is that it's gotten to the point where it gives people the impression it's OK ignore black history the other eleven months of the year.

haha

We all do know that it's Black History Month, and not Black People Month right?

The first verse of this poem was possibly the most memorized, most quoted verse of the Harlem Renaissance. It energized the Africo-centric movement, before it was called that. It made Cullen a star. It still gives me chills.

Heritage

by Countee Cullen

For Harold Jackman

What is Africa to me:
Copper sun or scarlet sea,
Jungle star or jungle track,
Strong bronzed men, or regal black
Women from whose loins I sprang
When the birds of Eden sang?
One three centuries removed
From the scenes his fathers loved,
Spicy grove, cinnamon tree,
What is Africa to me?

So I lie, who all day long
Want no sound except the song
Sung by wild barbaric birds
Goading massive jungle herds,
Juggernauts of flesh that pass
Trampling tall defiant grass
Where young forest lovers lie,
Plighting troth beneath the sky.
So I lie, who always hear,
Though I cram against my ear
Both my thumbs, and keep them there,
Great drums throbbing through the air.
So I lie, whose fount of pride,
Dear distress, and joy allied,
Is my somber flesh and skin,
With the dark blood dammed within
Like great pulsing tides of wine
That, I fear, must burst the fine
Channels of the chafing net
Where they surge and foam and fret.

Africa? A book one thumbs
Listlessly, till slumber comes.
Unremembered are her bats
Circling through the night, her cats
Crouching in the river reeds,
Stalking gentle flesh that feeds
By the river brink; no more
Does the bugle-throated roar
Cry that monarch claws have leapt
From the scabbards where they slept.
Silver snakes that once a year
Doff the lovely coats you wear,
Seek no covert in your fear
Lest a mortal eye should see
What's your nakedness to me?
Here no leprous flowers rear
Fierce corollas in the air;
Here no bodies sleek and wet,
Dripping mingled rain and sweat,
Tread the savage measures of

Jungle boys and girls in love.
What is last year's snow to me,
Last year's anything? The tree
Budding yearly must forget
How its past arose or set--
Bough and blossom, flower, fruit,
Even what shy bird with mute
Wonder at her travail there,
Meekly labored in its hair.
One three centuries removed
From the scenes his fathers loved,
Spicy grove, cinnamon tree,
What is Africa to me?

So I lie, who find no peace
Night or day, no slight release
From the unremittent beat
Made by cruel padded feet
Walking through my body's street.
Up and down they go, and back,
Treading out a jungle track.
So I lie, who never quite
Safely sleep from rain at night--
I can never rest at all
When the rain begins to fall;
Like a soul gone mad with pain
I must match its weird refrain;
Ever must I twist and squirm,
Writhing like a baited worm,
While its primal measures drip
Through my body, crying, "Strip!
Doff this new exuberance.
Come and dance the Lover's Dance!"
In an old remembered way
Rain works on me night and day.

Quaint, outlandish heathen gods
Black men fashion out of rods,
Clay, and brittle bits of stone,
In a likeness like their own,
My conversion came high-priced;
I belong to Jesus Christ,
Preacher of Humility;
Heathen gods are naught to me.
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
So I make an idle boast;
Jesus of the twice-turned cheek,
Lamb of God, although I speak
With my mouth thus, in my heart
Do I play a double part.
Ever at Thy glowing altar
Must my heart grow sick and falter,
Wishing He I served were black,
Thinking then it would not lack
Precedent of pain to guide it,
Let who would or might deride it;
Surely then this flesh would know
Yours had borne a kindred woe.
Lord, I fashion dark gods, too,
Daring even to give You
Dark despairing features where,
Crowned with dark rebellious hair,
Patience wavers just so much as
Mortal grief compels, while touches
Quick and hot, of anger, rise
To smitten cheek and weary eyes.
Lord, forgive me if my need
Sometimes shapes a human creed.
All day long and all night through,
One thing only must I do:
Quench my pride and cool my blood,
Lest I perish in the flood,
Lest a hidden ember set
Timber that I thought was wet
Burning like the dryest fax,
Melting like the merest wax,
Lest the grave restore its dead.
Not yet has my heart or head
In the least way realized
They and I are civilized.

<Are you saying you would rather have a Jewish History Month>

yeassir I would rather have a Jewish History month, than give anyone someone else's land to Israel. You see Israelis are allowed to travel and settle just about anywhere. They also were not only given someone else's land, but still retain unimaginable amounts of aid while others suffer. In other words, Blacks got a serious raw deal compared to Israel. I mean, imagine if Blacks were able to have been settled in Europe, Europeans were displaced, and Blacks received sickening amounts of aid to terrorize their neighbors who were pissed that their land was given to someone else. Then Israelis would have been denied anything for their suffering, however they get the opportunity to live in America as defacto slaves and a Jewish History month in which people get to watch informative programming on how much they have accomplished, and how much shit still sucks for them.

I would also rather have the textbooks changed, than informative programs on television for one month, or a black person winning a token Oscar he did not deserve (Halley Berry deserved hers-Denzel too).

you see rather than have a month, I would want change. I would want an end to the racism, the apartheid, the neocolonialism, than have a month where people say.....It sure has sucked to be you man.

Think about this for a second then answer:
What did you do during Black History Month? Did what you do help blacks? I would like everyone to please answer

Awww, no, I'm just an old clown...

You're in the music biz, huh? I used to promote spoken word/poetry events in the East Bay. It's so exciting to discover talented young people and help them get their start. Sometimes record labels would pick them up, mainly the rappers of course. The spoken word scene is more about knowledge and empowerment than money. Interesting to think of spreading knowledge as "infection." Black Panthers old and new used to come to our events and recruit, along with Greens and more mainstream political groups. It was a lot of fun. You can't throw a rock in Oakland without hitting a writer or artist. I miss it.

Black History Month Purpose:

History books had barely begun covering black history when the tradition of Black History Month was started. At that point, most representation of blacks in history books was only in reference to the low social position they held, with the exception of George Washington Carver. Black History Month can also be referred to as African-American History Month, or African Heritage Month. One of the few U.S. history works at that time told from an African American perspective was W.E.B. DuBois' 1935 work "Black Reconstruction."

Part of the aim of Black History Month is to expose the harms of racial prejudice and to cultivate black self-esteem following centuries of socio-economic oppression

The Debate:

Black History Month sparks an annual debate about the continued usefulness of a designated month dedicated to the history of one skin colour. Critical op-ed pieces have appeared in the Cincinnati Enquirer [1] and USA Today [2].

Some African American radical/nationalist groups, including the Nation of Islam, have criticized Black History Month. Some critics contend Black History Month is irrelevant because it has degenerated into a shallow ritual.[3]

Woodson, creator of Negro History Month, hoped that the week would eventually be eliminated, when African-American history would be fully integrated with American history.>>>>

So, has African American history been fully integrated in to American History? I don't think so. Once it has been, I am behind you 100% in regards to there not being a need for it.

<Because I researched him and did not come to the same conclusion as you>
Ok so you know who he is, and he is not a respected historian on black history.

I believe I said I would rather have Israel than a month. I believe my premise was that the ability to be able to occupy another's land is much better than a token month. I even went further to iterate that I would appreciate it if the roles were changed.

<Well you never explained why you misnamed it now did you?>
I do not need to explain anything that is irrelevant to my premise.

<Your statement that it was "given" to the community is disengenuous as well. >
It was given in a manner of acceptance

<I never indicated that there does not need to be change in our education system>
I indicated that a change is better than a token month, and that I would rather have change than a token month.

<I think you have it backwards.... Change the books and illuminate the need for Black History Month. Black History Month is not the cause for inequities, it is the rallying cry for changing them.>
Rally what ever. People do not need to get into the ADHD habit of focusing on something on something for only one month. Another one of my arguments was that it should be focused on all year, and praised Pedro comment of sense. I also iterated the need to not segregate our history.

Everyone needs to look at different perspectives of everything. It is also important to learn as much as one can. Focusing on just one "persons" History for one month is futile, in my opinion. Others may have a different opinion. I believe one should not settle for something substandard, I believe that one should "shoot for the moon". If one sets one's priorities at a high level, one will always accomplish the most, as opposed to the least.

My priorities are change the books, not just on Black History, but everyone's history, so we can celebrate our similarities and that which makes us unique. A token month does nothing but segregate history for 28 days. It makes no sense to limit a child's education. This is one of the reasons why I support school vouchers. I believe that what is necessary is competition and choice. Competition to raise the bar, and choice to enable parents to choose their child's "indoctrination" lol.

If people do not want to change the books, FINE keep your shit, but I want to have the choice to send my child to the school of my choice.A school that teaches the right education, and not bullshit. Furthermore if I am paying property taxes I do not want my money going to a system that teaches bullshit. Shit someone like Oprah could open a bunch of schools, and make shitloads of cash. I could care less about what other people want to teach their children, but parents should make sure that their children get the "best" education. African American parents, and African parents should also educate their children if the schools are not. They should educate them every day. It is a simple concept called parenting no month can accomplish what good parenting can. Gone are the days of storytelling, that originated in Africa as a means of passing history through song, dance, and the talking drum. IN fact I will close and hope you will Buy this book, or if not CHECK IT OUT! from your local library.

It is a book called: BTW it's fiction like the Davinci Code
Freedom Road
www.trussel.com/hf/freedomroad.htm
by Howard Fast
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Fast

I love Irony, Fast is Jewish but was OCJ (one cool jew) as noted in The Last Frontier

Now about the book. The forward for one edition was written by W E B Dubois. The Irony goes even further when one is to realize that Dubois was a citizen of Ghana, who helped Kwame Nkruma in the developing days of the country. For the wikintroduction to Dubois
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W.E.B._DuBois