For far too long, the accomplishments of blacks were left out of American history books. In the 1920s, black history week was established to reflect on, learn about and celebrate the the many ways black people contributed to American history. It was extended to a month in the 1970s.
Are you serious? Yeah, I cared about this and thought there should be a white history month . . . when I was like 12.
Why try to knock something positive? I can’t think of any negative effects of black history month, which is why I say fucking go for it.
God forbid you learn something about black people, or maybe even fall victim to some of that dreadful - gasp - unity.
Being sore about this shows all the maturity of “But moooooOOOm - I want what Billy has!”, hence why I cared about it when I was 12.
Personally, I declare March the Pink-And-Purple-Polka-Dotted History Month…
…whatever, dude. It’s a way to make people feel good, get together, learn some stuff, be happy. Peace, yo.
Kytheria - I’m with you! Personally, I think they should drop every put flavour / colour here - america contest", or - put flavour / colour here - day" and have one big huge day called “Every body take the day off, goof off and have fun!”
Incidentally, I’m Canadian, white and I LOVE collard greens, catfish, crawdads (we can only get them cooked and frozen here :mad: I’ve never had fresh cooked but, one day, I’ll make it to Louisiana for cold beer and crawdads and jazz / blues.
Fresh crawdads, cold beer, and jazz/blues in Louisiana?
**
Canadiangirl**, I am so there with you. 
January, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, and December.
And remember, for National Cracker month I’ll be featuring RC and Moonpies.
Thank you, I’m here all week. Enjoy the veal!
There’s nothing like it. I recommend an ice-cold Abita Purple Haze beer with your meal in New Orleans!
Excellent-I challenge you or any other Doper to produce evidence of a display/event/etc. from town hall/city hall/uni/wherever that ‘celebrates and promotes the contribution that white people have made’,or promotes ‘white people outstanding in their field’ or encouraging people to find out and promote ‘white culture or white history’ in the same way as Black History Month supposedly does.I bet you wouldn’t be able to,and that if such an event was arranged,it would very quickly be withdrawn after complaints.
Go ahead,prove me wrong 
I don’t know if the implication was that the Black History Month -food thign was new, but if that WAS the implication…it isn’t.
I lived in Scott Hall (6-pack) for my Freshman and Sophomore years at U of I. I remember having the same misgivings one evening as I walked down to the cafeteria to see collard greens, fried chicken and a whole lot of (yep) grape and orange sodas (I still remember…Fanta).
The thing was…I was walking down with my black roommate. I kept tryin to act cool as I was watching him out of th e corner of my eye. He didn’t flinch. Actually, my friend John was from Winnetka, so he described the chicken as “good”, but wouldn’t even look at the collard greens. Does this imply an economic distinction in Southern food? I don’t know, but watching him gag down hominy was worth the trip.
Go Illini!
Shirley Ujest there is no Asian Appreciation Month that I know of…there is only a school-sponsored keg party every Thursday alongside which the ethnic clubs organize dinners in order to raise money. The Asians also regularly sell samosas in the hallway because those bring loads of money as well. Although, in the interest of education we stopped playing Hindi music in the halls about two years ago.
Snappity-I bet our food emanated from the same source.
Now I’m all homesick, and I only lived there for two years. sniffle At least I’m still only a few hours away…
Nah. Bunches of people eat greens in some form from all walks of life in the South. Sounds like your roomie doesn’t like greens, or nobody but his mama’s greens.
There’s all different kinds of veggies loosely described as “greens”… collards, kale, spinach, turnips, mustard, chard. My great-grandma cultivated dandelions.
They served hominy grits with collards and chicken?
Perhaps because “white history” is a little too vague? What is “white” culture? Now, if you want to argue for various ethnic events, like Polish History Month, or Italian History Month, then I can agree. Hell, here in Pittsburgh, you get all kinds of ethnic festivals-we’ve had Polish Week with pierogies, haluski and kielbasa, for example.
But there is a “Black Culture” in America, mostly due to circumstances in our history. There is no specific “white culture.”
Nope. In post #5 I mentioned that I remembered them doing it last year. The only reason I started a thread about it now was because it was on my mind.
Actually, I would disagree with this.
I know you’re well versed in things of historical nature but I would ask you to explain what you mean by this and then I would likely prefer to call it something other than “black culture”.
The only “Black Culture” I see in America are the offensive stereotypes that all black people behave like the idiots on MTV and BET. They all listen to rap, they can all dance and play ball; they are basically here to entertain white people.
The only other thing I know of that is often mistaken for black culture is urban/lower class culture; also offensive.
Bullshit I say. Black people are every bit as “American” and diverse as white people and I think (or least I hope) that that is what black history month is about.
Celebrate great black people like Rosa Parks, Charles Drew, Martin Luther King Jr., et al, but don’t celebrate a culture that only exists because companies led by white people want to sell it to you.
Reading his post, he said hominy, not grits, and that goes pretty good with chicken and greens. Needs cornbread though.
Aesiron. Y’know, I’ve never actually eaten hominy – unless it was passed off as creamed corn casserole or something.
Cisco. There is a definite black culture in America with roots all the way back to the Jim Crow era, Reconstruction, the antebellum Abolitionist period and pre-Revolutionary slavery. It’s just not a terribly deep or monolithic one anymore. I agree the culture of the urban black poor is both overrepresented and misrepresented.
Foods are still one our common ethnic anchors, as well as common history (right up to the end of the Civil Rights era), dealing with discriminatory practices, the cohesiveness of the black church (though its impact is less), use of public education, the pervasiveness of AAVE and the periodic musical and dance revolutions we create, naming traditions, and Black Nationalist and Africentric movements filtered down from the masses. Plus you cannot deny the impact of sports (esp. basketball) and hip-hop over the last 30 years.
Extremely doubtful… hominy’s as similar to cream corn as popcorn is to whole kernel and there’s very little chance you’ve eaten it and mistaken it as something else as it has a unique (and very noticeable) taste and texture all its own.
Well, NOW you’ve got me curious enough to see if I can find a can in the grocery store when I go shopping this morning.
DopeFest!!! runs around planning party