I understand the relevance of Black History Month in the past. It was a month in which all people learned that, hey, those pesky darkies aren’t so bad - one of 'em found a thousand uses for the peanut! It was also, more importantly, a month in which black people could remind themselves, hey, we’re not as stupid, useless and lazy as they say we are - one of us found a thousand uses for the peanut!
My mother never, ever allowed us to ‘celebrate’ black history month. She sent my brother and me to an almost all white private school. She knew we weren’t going to learn about blacks other than King, Malcolm X, Tubman and Douglass. She routinely made us read (actually study) the lives and works of Bunche, DuBois, Evers, Hughs, Washington, etc. She supplemented my mostly white summer reading list with books by black, asian and middle-eastern authors.
She never emphasized that she was doing this because ‘whitey ain’t gonna teach you about your history’ she just took us to the library, helped us select the books and discussed them with us after we read them.
I, personally, don’t need Black History Month. I treat it like every other month: I pay the bills when they’re due, go to the grocery store and make sure my boys are getting a well rounded education.
You don’t seem to care so much for enlightenment as much as for “facts” that make you feel good. So, fuck you and your attitude. You don’t want the truth, you just want common perceptions to be wrong.
Yeah, I’ve got a toothache and I’m cranky as all hell. Bite me.
I do care for enlightenment, but this thread wasn’t about the finer details of the lightbulb, I was rattling off quick facts to illustrate a point. Let me guess, you’re the guy at the baseball game who questions if a home run is ACTUALLY 350 feet or not.
My attitude is that we should not “fuck black history month in it’s big black ass”, so if you disagree with that, so be it.
Just for the record, among other things, February is also American Heart Month, National Children’s Dental Health Month, National Snack Food Month, and Wise Health Consumer Month.
Just because Congress declares a month “National X Month”, doesn’t mean you have to care.
Er… for the record, the FCC doesn’t bar the use of “nigger” (normally I would have *ed the word, but here I suspect that people can handle non-emphatic use of a word they are familiar with) on radio broadcasts. You can’t say “motherfucker” or “big floppy donkey dick”, but you can say “nigger”. You’re right- that is a double standard. But it’s unfair to black people, not whitey.
Also, Florida public schools see to it that I would know George Washington Carver as the inventor of peanut butter, were it not for BHM. Frankly, I can handle a couple extra broadcasts of the Tuskegee Airmen if it means I end up more educated.
What if someone decided to start a white history month, how well do you think that’d go over?
Another thing I hate is the way blacks continue to act like whites owe them something more than the freedom and equality we’ve given them. We can’t help what our ancestors did to their ancestors. It’s history and we’ve been working very hard to make blacks and other minoritys equal with whites. I just wish we could all look at each other and not see the race but the person.
OK. Just for the record, this pasty white boy would like to disavow ANY connection with Sinful in ANY way. When the Revolution comes, please remember this.
“Freedom and equality we’ve given them”… Jesus wept. “Given” my ass! Black Americans had to TAKE what God and Constitution-given rights they have. Could you BE more condescending? :rolleyes:
When I was growing up and i used to whine that there was mother’s day and father’s day but no kid’s day, my mom said “Everyday is Kid’s Day”.
THANK YOU MASSA’ THANK YOU FO’ THE FREEDOM AN’ EQUALITY. WHAT MORE CAN I ASK OF MY BENEVOLENT GOD!
Yeah, black people. I work really hard to try and make you people equal and you just won’t budge! COME ON! It’s ALL DUE TO ME WORKIN’ MY FLABBY WHITE ASS OUT THERE ON THE STREETS that you have your freedom and equality. Why can’t you just BE EQUAL?
I don’t care what color you are. I see an asshole.
T minus 30 for “Some of my best friends are black”
Hispanic Heritage month actually stretches from the 16th of September (Mexican Independence Day) to Columbus Day (October 12th). The point being “Hispanics” are (from people such as Columbus and the ‘conquistadors’) of European or ‘white’ heritage as well as Indian, Mestizo, African and so on. It isn’t a message of racial ‘separatism’; though it seems to be seen that way by some.
White boy here that has been educated by black history month. For instance, did you know that the first successful open heart surgery was performed by a black American surgeon in 1893? I didn’t, until I learned about it during black history month while attending an HBU law school (HBU=historically black university). It’s a fun fact to trot out in conversation when someone is denigrating black intellectual achivements. There are always going to be people whose predjudice is so ingrained that they just won’t listen, but at least I have something for them not to listen to. Might as well make their ignorance deliberate.
Schoolhouse Rock was right; Knowledge is Power. If having black history month increases knowledge and dispels ignorance even a little bit, I’m all for it. If that means that I am unworthy of the respect of some kook on the internet, I can live with that.
