# Black Dopers: Do you think it's racist to have February as Black History Month? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 25, 2005, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-dopers-do-you-think-its-racist-to-have-february-as-black-history-month/291902 "2005-02-25T17:30:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2005, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-dopers-do-you-think-its-racist-to-have-february-as-black-history-month/291902/21 "2005-02-26T18:27:52Z")
Asian-Pacific History Month? We have a month??? Whodathunk. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2005, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-dopers-do-you-think-its-racist-to-have-february-as-black-history-month/291902/22 "2005-02-26T18:31:14Z")
> [@clayton\_e](#): > > My college had a black history themed everything for the past month. > > What bothered me was that fried chicken was listed on the menu at the dining hall for “Black history cusine”. > > Yup… Thats dispelling stereotypes. When I was going to Penn State, the cafeterias had a special menu for MLKJr Day. Chitlins, collard greens, fried chicken, and watermelon. The Offenderati League (the Lesbian & Gay Student Alliance, the campus Wimmin’s Center, the Pagan Alliance, and all the other “offended-by-proxy” groups) had a meltdown: a picket of the cafeterias was planned, action committees were mobilized…until the Paul Robeson Center reps gently cleared their throats and told us we were all idiots (although much more nicely). African-Americans’ culinary heritage IS “soul food” and the cuisine of the lower-class Southerner. It was the knee-jerk reaction to a perceived stereotype that was out-of-place and reactionary. ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2005, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-dopers-do-you-think-its-racist-to-have-february-as-black-history-month/291902/23 "2005-02-26T19:06:31Z")
> [@jester21](#): > > what’s more racist? that we have all these dedicated months or that no one could care less about any of them other than BHM? > [@Askia](#): > > The majority of Americans aren’t women? The largest minority group isn’t Hispanic? The midwest isn’t made up people of Germanic descent? There aren’t notable conmtributions from people of Asian ancestry on the Pacific Rim? Etc. > Plenty people care. Well, I’m not American, but I’m a woman, and I didn’t even _know_ there was such a thing as “Women’s History Month”. Women’s Day, sure, and Breast Cancer Awareness… but I didn’t know there was a month dedicated to the history of women. Most of these other history/heritage months aren’t advertised much outside of their community, I guess, and so people don’t know about them. It’s not that people don’t care, it’s that they don’t know these things exist. ---
**Author:** ![Weirddave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2005, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-dopers-do-you-think-its-racist-to-have-february-as-black-history-month/291902/24 "2005-02-26T20:21:30Z")
Just asking for opinions: Suppose someone proposed a “White history month”? Sauce for the goose or cause for offense? Also, why? ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2005, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-dopers-do-you-think-its-racist-to-have-february-as-black-history-month/291902/25 "2005-02-27T00:05:12Z")
We have eleven of those already. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2005, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-dopers-do-you-think-its-racist-to-have-february-as-black-history-month/291902/26 "2005-02-27T00:15:19Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > African-Americans’ culinary heritage IS “soul food” and the cuisine of the lower-class Southerner. It was the knee-jerk reaction to a perceived stereotype that was out-of-place and reactionary. Black History != African-American history (note the capitalisation). Knee-jerks against knee-jerks are still knee-jerks. ---
**Author:** ![Merkwurdigliebe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/74df32/32.png) [@Merkwurdigliebe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merkwurdigliebe)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2005, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-dopers-do-you-think-its-racist-to-have-february-as-black-history-month/291902/27 "2005-02-27T00:20:06Z")
Yeah, people need to chill with being easily offended. Its not like “soul food” is somehow inferior. Hell I think its damn good. Although it is easy to be offended by things like that becasue people use it for racist comments a lot of times, its still true. Now do black people eat “soul food” all of the time? I’m sure they don’t, but you can’t tell me that any middle-class black family in suburbia (by all means successful) feels some kind of shame in cooking that “soul food” every now and again. Hell, I am sure they are pretty proud of it. I know I would be. Unfortunately, I don’t really have anything like that to be proud of, being just a typical WASP. I suppose the closest thing to that would be my grandmother’s cooking, but that was pretty much standard American fare (roast, pork chops, etc.) ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2005, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-dopers-do-you-think-its-racist-to-have-february-as-black-history-month/291902/28 "2005-02-27T00:26:15Z")
> [@Weirddave](#): > > Just asking for opinions: Suppose someone proposed a “White history month”? Sauce for the goose or cause for offense? Also, why? Tough call. I would guess it would torque off some minority groups, who may well regard white folk as being possessed of most of the history taught in schools in the USA anyway. I wouldn’t mind reading through my 9th grader’s Global History book to see what it says about US History- it’s a new textbook, and would give a fair view of what kids today are taught. See, I am guessing that if a 600-page textbook spent as much time on the cultural contributions of ( a short list, so nobody get upset if I left some folks out ) Africans, Inuit, Spanish Indians, Native Americans and Asians as they do on white folk then there wouldn’t be much room to crow. I suspect this is not the case, of course. IIRC from school, there were a few token names trotted out to remind us that the blizzard wasn’t pure white. I learned a lot about the Underground Railroad because I lived 2 blocks from a “station” that was excavated while I lived nearby. I would hope that it would neither be sauce for the goose nor cause for offense, but I am guessing that it would wind up being one of the two. It’s a blurry line and thank god it gets blurrier with each generation. What if the inventor of the Transistor was 1/2 Latino, or the creator of the H.I.V. screening method were 1/4 African-American? Who lays claim? Who should? Cartooniverse ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2005, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-dopers-do-you-think-its-racist-to-have-february-as-black-history-month/291902/29 "2005-02-27T00:35:40Z")
> [@Weirddave](#): > > Just asking for opinions: Suppose someone proposed a “White history month”? Sauce for the goose or cause for offense? Also, why? Well, in California they have European History Month. An excerpt from [http://www.eaif.org/histmonth.htm](http://www.eaif.org/histmonth.htm) > [@](#): > > October has been designated “European American Heritage Month” by the California legislature, which unanimously approved the resolution in late August 1999. > > “Public school students can now study and celebrate the many contributions that people of European origin have made to California and the United States,” says Lou Calabro, head of the San Bruno-based European-American Issues Forum, which drafted the resolution. Calabro said his group modeled the resolution after those celebrating other racial/ethnic groups. > > Calabro called upon parents and other interested individuals to contact local school districts and help them create special projects and curricula to highlight European-American heritage this October. No funding for the event has been made available by the legislature or the California Department of Education. > > “With today’s focus on multiculturalism, the legislature’s support serves the interests of fairness and diversity by recognizing the European-American community as as a distinct, valued segment of our society,” says Calabro, who noted Novato-resident Stan Hess suggested Heritage Month. > > Assemblyman Lou Papan sponsored Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 91, which marks the first official recognition by the State government of the 16 million Californians of European ancestry, including such diverse groups as Anglo-Saxons, Armenians, Basque, Celts, French, Germans, Greeks, Spaniards, Italians, Scandinavians and Slavs. When I was in high school, my “world” history course really was a European history course. But if a European history month allows for things to be highlighted besides that boring-ass “Who was the King of England in 1620?” mess I had to suffer through, then cool beans. > [@](#): > > Black History != African-American history (note the capitalisation). Knee-jerks against knee-jerks are still knee-jerks. Actually, black history _is_ focused on African Americans. From [http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmintro1.html](http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmintro1.html) > [@](#): > > We owe the celebration of Black History Month, and more importantly, the study of black history, to Dr. Carter G. Woodson. Born to parents who were former slaves, he spent his childhood working in the Kentucky coal mines and enrolled in high school at age twenty. He graduated within two years and later went on to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard. The scholar was disturbed to find in his studies that history books largely ignored the **black American population** —and when blacks did figure into the picture, it was generally in ways that reflected the inferior social position they were assigned at the time. Growing up in predominately black city (Atlanta), we never learned about blacks in general. We learned about African Americans and their contribution to American history. ---
**Author:** ![alterego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2005, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-dopers-do-you-think-its-racist-to-have-february-as-black-history-month/291902/30 "2005-02-27T05:41:50Z")
As an ex-navy journalist, i can say I absolutely hate and despise these months. On the ship the only benefit they service is the formation of race-based cliques, and they are completely dull to write stories on and even worse to photograph. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2005, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-dopers-do-you-think-its-racist-to-have-february-as-black-history-month/291902/31 "2005-02-27T06:04:58Z")
So-- they’re bad news because they foster friendships and don’t have visual tragedy? GASP. Sucks to be you. Maybe you’re just not cut out to write and photograph soft news feature stories. I know I’d suck a military journalist. ---
**Author:** ![alterego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2005, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-dopers-do-you-think-its-racist-to-have-february-as-black-history-month/291902/32 "2005-02-27T06:18:46Z")
> [@](#): > > So-- they’re bad news because they foster friendships and don’t have visual tragedy? GASP. Sucks to be you. No, they are bad news because they promote racism. I was once told that as a “white boy” I was allowed to use the word nigger once a day because I was “cool”. At any given time you could walk on the mess decks and encounter a group of filipinos on one side, a group of blacks on the other, and a group of hispanics on another. A good hispanic friend of mine, Carmona, wanted to hang out with me on liberty, and got shit for it from those sharing his ethnicity. It’s a fact that it happens in this way. And there is a saying in the Navy, “If you’ve been on one ship you’ve been on them all.” ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2005, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-dopers-do-you-think-its-racist-to-have-february-as-black-history-month/291902/33 "2005-02-27T06:26:22Z")
> [@Askia](#): > > I know I’d suck a military journalist. 😃 That’s a bit TMI. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2005, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-dopers-do-you-think-its-racist-to-have-february-as-black-history-month/291902/34 "2005-02-27T06:49:23Z")
**mhendo.** Well, _she’d_ have to be a she, with a great ass! **alterego.** “Foster?” People can take anything and make it racial. What you describe sounds symptomatic of underlying bigotries, rather than ethnic celebrations of culture and history being the cause. You don’t blame a benign celebratory event for the hateful crap in someone’s heart. Military personnel dynamics aren’t going to be exactly the same on each ship. I’m sure there are ships where feelings are both more tolerant and much worse than you’ve said. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2005, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-dopers-do-you-think-its-racist-to-have-february-as-black-history-month/291902/35 "2005-02-27T07:47:24Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > Actually, black history _is_ focused on African Americans. From [http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmintro1.html](http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmintro1.html) Well, yes, American websites tend to focus on the American aspects of Black History Month. [http://www.black-history-month.co.uk/home.html](http://www.black-history-month.co.uk/home.html) gives you another angle. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2005, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-dopers-do-you-think-its-racist-to-have-february-as-black-history-month/291902/36 "2005-02-27T16:17:18Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > Well, yes, American websites tend to focus on the American aspects of Black History Month. [http://www.black-history-month.co.uk/home.html](http://www.black-history-month.co.uk/home.html) gives you another angle. There’s a BHM in UK that focuses on the contribution of blacks in the UK. There’s a BHM in the USA that focuses on the contribution of blacks in the USA. If I see a sign advertising BHM in the USA, why would I think it meant anything other than a celebration of _Americans_. Particularly since the founder of the month was an American who wanted to celebrate Americans? “African American” was not present in the lexicon back when BHM week (and then month) was created, but BHM in the USA has _always_ been about African Americans. I guess I’m still confused why you think the protestors in **jayjay’s** had a legitimate point. In the first place, I don’t think it was the use of the word “black” rather than “African American” that raised their ire. That’s a distinction most people do not bother making, even if they are aware of the differences. ---
**Author:** ![Weirddave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2005, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-dopers-do-you-think-its-racist-to-have-february-as-black-history-month/291902/37 "2005-02-27T19:23:41Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > In the first place, I don’t think it was the use of the word “black” rather than “African American” that raised their ire. That’s a distinction most people do not bother making, even if they are aware of the differences. How would you define the differences? I’d really like to know, because personally I dislike the term “African American” for a couple of reasons. #1, I think Anything-American is unamerican. It’s putting the cart before the horse. “American of whatever descent” would be much better IMHO. It implies that we are all Americans first, and that whatever culture we come from is second, while still adding that cultural diversity to the mix for all of us to celebrate and learn from. #2 African-American as it is commonly used means black. Why can’t we just use the term black? Africans come in all colors of the rainbow, why not recognize that? Charlize Theron and Dave Matthews are African Americans, but if you (rightly) refer to them as such, you’ll get torn a new asshole by The Offenderati League ( thanks for the term, \*\* jayjay\*\*! ). How is that promoting anything other than racism? ---
**Author:** ![Ace309](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ace309/32/1050_2.png) [@Ace309](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ace309)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2005, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-dopers-do-you-think-its-racist-to-have-february-as-black-history-month/291902/38 "2005-02-27T19:46:03Z")
> [@Askia](#): > > Hey, it’s true. African-American cuisine came out of slavery and chicken, fish and lesser bits of hog are meats blacks ate. Any black restaurant is guaranteed to serve chicken-- even seafood places. You do occassionally get accurate information in college. Back in Buffalo there’s an absolutely _killer_ West Indian restaurant called Steel Drum. I was there with my parents one night after we’d all gotten off work late, and the very, very friendly Jamaican owner came over and chatted us up. Seemed he was absolutely thrilled that he’d finally gotten the spices right on his fried chicken recipe, and was extremely proud. It didn’t fit with any of the other dishes on the menu, and he explained to us, being lily white, that it was just a cultural thing. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2005, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-dopers-do-you-think-its-racist-to-have-february-as-black-history-month/291902/39 "2005-02-27T20:35:49Z")
> [@Weirddave](#): > > How would you define the differences? I’d really like to know, because personally I dislike the term “African American” for a couple of reasons. #1, I think Anything-American is unamerican. It’s putting the cart before the horse. “American of whatever descent” would be much better IMHO. It implies that we are all Americans first, and that whatever culture we come from is second, while still adding that cultural diversity to the mix for all of us to celebrate and learn from. #2 African-American as it is commonly used means black. Why can’t we just use the term black? Africans come in all colors of the rainbow, why not recognize that? Charlize Theron and Dave Matthews are African Americans, but if you (rightly) refer to them as such, you’ll get torn a new asshole by The Offenderati League ( thanks for the term, \*\* jayjay\*\*! ). How is that promoting anything other than racism? You have failed to convince me that using “African American” in the way it is traditionally used promotes racism. Charlize Theron and Dave Matthews are not African Americans (we have discussed this numerous times on this board). They are South African immigrants. They have a specific nationality…referring to a continent is silly. And are Chalize Theron and Dave Matthews clamoring to be called “African Americans”? If not, why would you care to describe them as such? (And are you telling me that if someone were to say, “Africans are immigrating to the USA en mass”, you wouldn’t picture a bunch of dark-skinned, curly-haired people getting off of airplanes? You would actually picture a rainbow of people? Really? Wow! Do you also picture a rainbow of people when you think of “European”? How about “Asian” or “Indian”?) All the “unAmerican” stuff is crap IMHO. I don’t use “African American” to describe myself because it’s too wordy and PC, but on those occassions that I do use it, I’m doing it for a specific purpose. “African American” has a specific meaning. It is not any more disloyal than “black American” is, and to believe that is to be extremely oversimplistic. I also think it’s hilarious that you’re talking about “Offenderati League” and you’re talking about being bothered by an innocuous thing like “African American”. If that isn’t being an “offenderati”, I don’t know what is. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2005, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-dopers-do-you-think-its-racist-to-have-february-as-black-history-month/291902/40 "2005-02-27T22:10:40Z")
> [@WeRSauron](#): > > Dedicating a month to any race is certainly _racialist_ and, as such, detrimental in the end. Such racialism fosters the belief that races are different and separate from each other. That’s been my problem with it. It makes it seem like there’s a separateness that’s endorsed by the culture as a whole. It also might let people feel like they’ve done their bit to notice black people, so they can be ignored the rest of the time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-dopers-do-you-think-its-racist-to-have-february-as-black-history-month/291902.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-dopers-do-you-think-its-racist-to-have-february-as-black-history-month/291902.md?page=3)