Why is there a Mothers’ Day and a Fathers’ Day but no Kids’ Day? Every day is Kids’ Day.
Why is there a Gay Pride Week and no Straight Pride Week? Every week is Straight Pride Week.
Why is there a Black History Month and no White History Month? Every month is White History Month.
I’m afraid to even post this, as I don’t want to be misconstrued, but here goes.
I never really questioned the validity of Black History Month. To me, it’s like anything else- a group of people with a common interest or culture or “fill in the blank” raise awareness for a certain cause/interest/etc… Perfectly understandable, and obviously, interesting.
What I don’t get is this. I went to a university where every year there was a Family Weekend. That’s it- “Family”.
I thought that was broad enough to include everyone. Families come to visit their sons and daughters, get to take a tour of the campus, meet some of their kids’ new friends, etc… Pretty basic, right?
Only, every year, there was also a Black Family Weekend. The black students would have their very own weekend with all of the activities as the regular Family weekend, only they would be the only one’s included.
I don’t even want to go into what would have happened had someone suggested a White Family. It sounds evil even to me. I don’t understand, and I don’t want to be attacked as racist- I harbor no ill will towards this annual event- only it confuses me. It doesn’t seem to be easily explained by the historical reasons that can explain the necessity to Black History Month.
Could someone please explain this to me? This is an honest question- so please don’t reply if you’re prone to blasting in response to racial questions.
Thanks.
I would like to point out that history should be more inclusive than learning about individual leaders. The most important and interesting type of history to me is cultural history, and that should include the story of our minority populations. Perhaps we could learn more about how the slave lived on the plantation, the way slaves worked for freedom, the way black people fought in our nation’s wars and still faced oppression at home, the way civil rights were bravely achieved.
Perhaps when we learn of an era of our nation’s history, we could note that black people existed, and talk about how they lived. Yes, black people didn’t have government leadership roles for much of our nation’s history, but they existed. They could be perceived as underdogs in our culture. I thought America always loved an underdog.
Sounds like somebody went too far in the name of recognizing cultural diversity to me smoke. I agree with you it sounds patently stupid.
Black overload?
Interesting concept and you might have something there. I get a bit irritated with all of the Gay Pride stuff thrown at me from all directions also. I’m aware of Gays. I agree with their rights because they’re human. But, I’m heterosexual and I’m tired of Gays in the news, programs about Gays, movies about Gays, Gay parades, lengthy discussions about Gay Rights and assorted lawsuits brought by Gays.
Funny, I had less problems concerning Gays before they started throwing Gay in my face all of the time.
It could be the same with Blacks. On a personal level, when the civil rights movements began, I was all for it. My school was integrated before integration was forced. Now, every time I turn around I’m confronted with Black whatever. In history, we learned about the Underground Railroad, but not just that whites ran it, but blacks also – though admittedly, emphasis was placed on the white activity.
In school, we learned about slavery. When I got into college, on my own I found out more about the horrors involved in slavery that was not taught in school. Later, TV went into more detailed research concerning the actual methods of slave gathering, the layout of slave ships and so on. During my college years, I knew of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. I knew of the riots, the formation of the NAACP, the reasons behind it, the all black baseball teams and the integration of white baseball.
My college had a large contingent of black people. Cool. I was aware of the ongoing racial struggles. Roots came out. Cool. The documentaries of the killing of the 3 civil rights workers came out. I still recall the famous picture of the tobacco chewing law officer sitting in court, looking smug, chatting with his grinning cronies as he got away with participating in the murder. Typical racist hick.
Now, over 30 years later, I’m getting slammed in the face with Black whatever whenever I turn around, though I’m very aware of other racial struggles, abuse, historical figures and creative people. Even the ‘Asian Craze’ didn’t blanket the media all of the time when the Chinese movies dealing with martial arts set off the Kung-Fu fanatics. Remember that? Suddenly, everyone on TV was ‘Kung-Fu’ fighting? Guys went from boxing each other in movies to doing impossible martial arts stunts.
I did not have any problem with the Black Struggle nor the demands for justice, equal rights and acceptance. I supported it.
Now, I’m being overloaded with black pride.
I agree, there actually cannot be a white month, but I get tired of the dichotomy in what is racist and what is not, being told that certain unjust actions are now acceptable because of retribution for centuries of repression. It seems to me that for everything to be equal, other races should have their months slammed in my informational media also.
Actually, I’m kinda tired of ‘race anything,’ preferring to read about people who are outstanding.
I lived in a small town as a kid. We had black people living there also. We didn’t care. Back then the blacks were poor, but we had a large percentage of poor whites. The blacks lived in tight communities, but we had poor whites living in tight communities. In school, the biggest racial jokes dealt with Wops and Ginnie’s (SP), Pollocks and Italians. (How do you tell the difference between an American knife and an Italian one? Throw the American knife and when it sticks in wood, it goes THUNK! The Italian one goes WOP! – make vibrating hand gesture – ginni-ginni-ginni!)
Dumb Pollock was a favorite saying. The ‘how many Pollocks does it take to …’ was the favored joke.
MY last name is Italian, so I was aware of the jokes. It rhymes with baloney.
In conclusion to this rambling post – sorry – I liked blacks better when I considered them normal folks instead of BLACKS demanding, demanding and demanding, like today. I said normal folks, not folks kept in their place, not lower beings, not people to be segregated, but folks.
Miss America should be Miss America with all races, as it is. Why does there need to be a separate Black America? For ego boost? For elevating black pride? For discrimination as revenge? (Don’t give me that crap about how whites sponsor it, how white girls may be in it, how whites work on the sets, and so on. The name says it all.) Yeah, like any white girl actually would stand a chance of winning Miss Black America! Black girls have won Miss America though.
If I were to suggest a White History Month and it actually be considered by congress, the NAACP would have it’s lawyers on the move, Jessie Jackson would be screaming racism, Louis Farrikan would start preaching from the roof tops about the evil that is the white man, and dozens of other black figures would start crying discrimination.
BTW. I know about the horrors of slavery, which a previous poster suggested we should learn. From the reasons behind it, to the betrayal by ‘friendly’ white men, to the stinking, foul galley holds, the average mortality rate in the ships, the holding pens at the docks, the culling, the auctions, the ‘training’ methods and further living conditions. Columbus dealt in Indian slaves even after the Queen of England put an end to slavery. I know about the treatment of blacks in the civil war, especially any captured in Yankee uniform. I know how they were treated in WW2, about Rosewood, the KKK, Wallace, being unable to vote, and how even Sammy Davis Junior, for most of his career, had to enter theaters where hundreds paid to see him, by the back door. Blacks were not allowed to enter by the front. I know about apartide, the Afrikaans, their White Superiority Complex, their treatment of blacks well beyond the American civil rights movement, even against international criticism.
There’s more. It’s in the history books. It’s available in books on Black History. I also know about black inventors, philosophers, musicians, singers, actors, artists, doctors, lawyers, dentists, cops, politicians, mechanics, builders, painters, executives, business owners, teachers, astronauts, pilots, soldiers, farmers and more.
I still find no reason for just a black history month.
For all of the above, I can say the same about Hispanics, Asians and American Indians.
Finally, if I choose to dislike a black person, it’s not because of race. It’s because I find something repellent about him or her, just like with people of every other race.
Except that the Black Miss America contest was not started recently to make any statements. It was started during the period when blacks were not permitted to enter the Miss America contest. It continues now, simply because the people who organize and sponsor it have jobs that they don’t feel like giving up. It is an institution. Just as with any institution, the only thing that will kill it will be a lack of funds.
In other words, they aren’t doing it to bug you; they are doing it to make a buck. PRetty standard American behavior, if you ask me. (And I doubt that this particular contest if forcing itself onto your TV screen.)
It remains because any white who challenges it as racist is ignored, but let me create a white Miss America and see how fast it will shut down as racist and how many blacks line up to state that it is so. According to the current rules of racism, Miss Black America fits right in there nicely.
Besides, one would think that in the interest of harmony, the operators would drop the black part of the name, well knowing that many whites would see it as discriminatory. How many things do you know of in the media have a ‘white’ tag on them? Like ‘white’ cooking, ‘white’ magazines, ‘white’ concerts, ‘white’ awards, ‘white’ heroes, ‘white’ history, ‘white’ organizations – excluding racist ones, ‘white’ actors, ‘white’ movies. Remember BLACKula? (Man! Talk about cheesy!) We call poor white lingo trash talk. Poor black lingo is a dialect, a language and people created Ebonics to instruct non-blacks on how to understand it.
You can barely understand people in New Orleans but no one has created a language interpretation program for them and most of them are white! We talk about musical artists – so long as they are white, Asian or Hispanic. If they’re black, they must be called black artists.
Any college you know of with the word white in it’s name or designation? There are black colleges.
It’s racist, no matter how you cut it.
Ever consider that maybe we’re tired of hearing about heterosexuals all the time?
I’m not really big on labeling people “racist,” but you have gone so far out of your way to (deliberately?) misunderstand what has been said or to ignore what has been pointed out, that I am beginning to think that, if not a racist, you are trolling.
Can you name a college with “black” in its name? Can you name a college founded for and still predominantly attended by blacks that denies whites admittance? Heck, they even give scholarships to white kids.
It is only racist if someone provides a job or a product on the open market and then prohibits anyone other than blacks from being employed or from buying the product or hiring the service.
You are working too hard at all this indignation, and it really doesn’t amount to much.
There are beauty pageants that include “Hispanic” or “Asian” in the title. The major difference is that they were organized subsequent to 1971 under the auspices of the general Miss America Pageant. The Black Miss America pageant was organized separately prior to 1971. For them to come under the aegis of the larger Miss America umbrella, some people at the top of the food chain would have to surrender their (now redundant) jobs. Why should they do that, just so that you didn’t have to know that there was a Black Miss America pageant (that you can’t even find unless you rigorously search the TV Guide every single week looking for it)? Since you seem to be unaware of the Hispanic and Asian pageants, it would seem that you are deliberately seeking out the black contest to be mad about.
Oh, well!
Good heavens, quite the feeding frenzy.
I don’t believe the topic of the OP has been given nearly the thought it deserves, by anyone. That includes the poster of the OP.
Now, I have a few questions, so please eradicate my ignorance if you can:
Is Black History Month an official designation? That is, is there some government document somewhere that designates February as Black History Month, or is it an unofficial celebration?
If it is official, are other races given officially designated months devoted to their history? If so, which ones? I am curious, particularly, if there is a White History Month.
How does one go about getting a month designated as X History Month?
Um, no. Linguists were studing black vernacular English near the first two decades of the 20th century. Sorry, come back when you have some facts, O Indignant One.
Contrary to the statement (not quoted) in your opening line, nearly all these points have already been addressed in this very thread.
xxxx History Month is the result of a Congressional declaration. There is usually some flowery language in the proclamation to the effect that it is intended to “recognize the contributions to American Liberty/Lifestyle/Progress/Whatever” by the members of xxxx group.
As already noted previously in this thread, there are several such proclamations for a number of ethnic or regional groups, (blacks having been given the shortest month). Black History Month gets more play than the others, because black people have spent more of their own time, enrgy, and money publicizing it. (That, of course, is the American Way. Want some notice? Buy it.)
To get one named for your particular group, simply pester your Senator or Representative to introduce such a motion in Congress and push to have the proclamation passed into law.
The law has no bearing on the treatment of any group. It is a feel-good exercise in “recognizing” contributions. No one gets money or special rights or anything other than the “right” to put up a poster or publish an article that says “In this month, set aside by Congress for recognition, let us remember the contributions of xxxx.”
Now, if you really, truly believe that white folks have never been recognized for their contributions to this country, feel free to push for a “white month.” There may, indeed, be people who would condemn such a measure as racist. I would not join them. I would simply laugh at the absurdity of the notion that they have not already been recognized.
Perhaps if you had quoted my opening line, you would have taken the time to read it as well. My opening line was, “Good heavens, quite the feeding frenzy.”
I think you are refering to my second line, “I don’t believe the topic of the OP has been given nearly the thought it deserves, by anyone.” (Obviously, ‘anyone’ in this context means ‘anyone responding to this thread’, not anyone anywhere.)
Perhaps you can point out where in this thread these things are pointed out? This would be much appreciated. Between the OPer’s ramblings and the myriad accusations of racism, I didn’t find much actual information in the thread.
You say this as if you seriously expect me to be offended by the fact that black people actively promote Black History Month. Nothing could be further from the truth. I’m glad that Black History Month gets as much promotion as it does.
I do not believe that white people have never been recognized for their contributions to this country (except in my high school history class; but that’s another matter), but neither do I believe that such a thing is the only reason to declare a White History Month.
It is certainly not the case that black people have never been recognized for their contributions to this country, although until the past few decades these contributions were, indeed, usually glossed over. I think simple pride in the past of a group one belongs to is enough justification for one to advocate for a History Month, or some similar recognition.
Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions.
I worked at a chemical plant that made money for the 2 “stupid American” owners who had it for 43 years and lost money the 2 years that the “superior Canadians” owned it.
Shortly before the Canucks closed us down, I had a conversation with one of my black co-workers in which I
declared that it took foreign ownership of our plant to bring true equality.
He immediately caught my drift saying, “Yeah, you whites
get to be niggers just like us now.”
I’m sure that when Martin Luther King marched for equality,
he meant that blacks be elevated to full human rights and not that all races of American be treated like sub-human garbage by colonizing foreigners.
To “niggers” of all races and colors at DaimlerChrysler
and all other foreigner-“improved” formerly-American companies, one of your own salutes you.
We’re sorry we bother you so much. We’ll just go back to pretending that we’re straight and leave you alone so you can have the illusion of a purely heterosexual world.
You have shown me that visibility and educating people is bad. I will now leave my husband and find a wife and create the image of my heterosexuality so I can be palatable to the masses. I have seen the light, thank you.
We’re sorry we bother you so much. We’ll just go back to pretending that we’re straight and leave you alone so you can have the illusion of a purely heterosexual world.
You have shown me that visibility and educating people is bad. I will now leave my husband and find a wife and create the image of my heterosexuality so I can be palatable to the masses. I have seen the light, thank you.
By the way… that’s not Gay on your face. That’s sparkly glitter. You can get it off with soap and water. Getting gay off your face requires stronger solvents, and an SOS™ pad.
Ahh the beauty of a homogonized world :rolleyes:
For the life of me, then, I can’t figure out why you protest so much. If you were able to learn about all this, maybe BHM will educate some other lesser educated people. If indeed you sought knowledge about slavery on your own, I would assume you’d be happy that the media is trying to educate the lesser motivated masses.
Methinks Twentyeight hath no point. You thought you had one. It’s been refuted by sound arguments, and now you’ve resorted to long rants that go nowhere except to where they started.
First tripe now jingoism
I dearly hope that Zenith’s post is a failed attempt at humor rather than the foolish anti- ferrigner rant that it appears to be.
As to Blacknight’s disingenuous reply: it seems to me that Tom quite clearly indicates that his questions were addressed in this very fucking thread, which they were. Somehow Blacknight fails to understand this, leading us to the conclusion he did not read very well. It’s hard to understand either the initial question, or the response unless reading comprehension is a problem.
I find it hard to believe anyone’s High School history class somehow did not recognize “white americans” contributions given our national history.
I generally ignore interjections as superfluous, but I will admit I addressed your opening “line” rather than your opening “statement” for which I accept your rebuke.
However:
02-14-2001 07:18 AM in the 4th response to this very thread