This should have gone into Great Debates, except that I can’t post a poll there, so in IMHO it goes:
In the United States, there is a Hispanic Heritage Month, Native American Heritage Month, and an African-American History Month.
Now, if the United States implemented a White Caucasian Heritage Month, what would you think of it?
I think, broadly speaking, people would probably fall into one of three opinion categories about it: 1) “It’s racist.” White people are the privileged racial majority in America, and most instances of slavery in the United States were white owners of black slaves. In addition, white people were the ones who took land away from the Native Americans. So to celebrate a White Caucasian Heritage Month would, indirectly, endorse such racism. In addition, even if such a White Caucasian Heritage Month were not inherently racist in and of itself, some white-supremacist organizations might see it as an opportunity to further their racist ends. 2) “It’s unnecessary - white people are already the privileged group.” White people are already the privileged racial group in America, and also the numerical majority in the United States as well. They don’t need additional recognition or affirmation the way that Hispanic-Americans, Native Americans, African-Americans or other racial minorities do. 3) “It’s fine - it’s no different than honoring or recognizing any other racial group.” White people are simply one more racial group in America, just like any other racial category - just like Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans, Arabs, etc. So to have a White Caucasian Heritage Month really isn’t any different than having a Hispanic Heritage Month or African-American History Month. It would be racial *inequality *to say that white people should not have a heritage month when other racial groups have one.
It’d be unnecessary. In schools, during Black History Month, children learn about historical black figures; the other 11 months of the year, the focus is on white people. Basically, the default setting of the country is focusing on white heritage, making a special month redundant.
Seems a little pointless to me, because “white” isn’t a single culture/nation with shared traditions or heritage or much in common besides skin tone. You can be proud of being Irish, or Italian, or Scottish, or Russian or what have you, but being proud of being white just sounds silly.
But the same is true of the other heritage/recognition months as well.
African-American History Month encompasses people whose ancestry could be from many different regions - Ghana, Ethiopia, Sudan, Nigeria, Mali, Mauritania, Rwanda, Burundi, Angola, Botswana, Senegal, etc. Just like how white can mean Irish or Scottish or Russian or whatnot.
This comes closest to my view, but I wouldn’t have described it in terms of “privilege” or “affirmation.” Rather, much of American history has traditionally (and, to some extent, understandably) focused on white men and what they did, which may give the impression that the lives and accomplishments of people of other “races” don’t matter. The Months mentioned in the OP are an attempt to correct the imbalance/neglect.
There’s no need to set aside a month to focus on white history. White American history = American history. It’s not ignored 99% of the time, then glossed over for 30 days a year.
I daresay that “African-American” is a more distinct cultural identity than “white” is. I’m not black, but in my own experience, there are considerably fewer black Americans than white Americans who know the specific cultural roots of their ancestors, or are capable of knowing considering the circumstances their ancestors underwent.
The fact that we shove all those disparate people into one “celebration” is emblematic of the way in which Black History Month is a token attempt to balance out the overwhelming attention given to European history every other day of the year. In reality, schools should expand their history classes so that the focus is on World History. I wouldn’t argue that children should be taught less about Eurpoean and Classical history. I think they should be taught equally about other histories as well.
It’s really not–it’s just that two factors make it seem that way:
White culture is so pervasive in the United States that it comes across as a default setting. Consider, for example, the “ethnic” hair care aisle, which doesn’t contain products to deal with the thin straight hair common to people of my ethnicity.
Part of white American culture is the denial of our own culture.
I think the poll is founded on a false premise. Every year, March 1 marks the beginning of White History 11 Months.
This is true, and African Americans are a specific subset of black Americans; not people who recently emigrated from the African continent or the West Indies, but the descendants of American slaves, along with slave owners and Native Americans.
Every month is Caucasian Heritage Month on Turner Classic Movies.
I get a kick out of the party scenes in 1940s and 1950s movies - what with the dancing to incredibly hot music, endless cocktails, partygoers smoking like chimneys - man, those white people knew how to have fun.*
*a classic example being the original 1950 version of D.O.A. with Edmond O’Brien. Check out the scene with the hep cats at the “jive” nightclub. It’ll blow your socks off.
And guess what? All of these “months” also have their own individual holidays of celebration. Columbus Day = Italian Americans. St. Patrick’s Day = Irish Americans. Oktoberfest = German Americans
There’s even a Jewish American heritage month. Should Christian Americans get their own special month too, just to balance it out?
The only people who get butthurt over the absence of “white history month” are white folks who only claim “American” as their heritage. If someone thinks Americans need their own heritage month, that person is seriously fucked up in the head.
In a completely neutral context, I would say that it’s unnecessary because whites are the privileged group. But no context is ever completely neutral, and if anyone ever seriously proposed such a month, I would very strongly suspect that the underlying motive was racism.
Except for Hispanic Heritage Month, Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, and Native-American Heritage Month.
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In fairness, though, July pretty much defaults to this, right? I mean, first it’s the part that’s all George Washington this and Thomas Jefferson that and Ben Franklin the other thing, and after celebrating that official holiday we soon reach the anniversary of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin setting foot on the moon in the month named for Julius Caesar; I’m not sure you can make it through without being reminded.
If anyone seriously proposed such a month, the burden would be on them to explain why it was necessary/desirable and how it should be implemented. If they think they can make a convincing, nonracist case, I’m willing to listen, but I won’t hold my breath.