Why America needs White History Month

[morningfog]

The Republican presidential campaign has persuaded me. Not to vote for Mitt Romney, God no. They have, however, convinced me of something else I previously considered unthinkable. In some ways, the idea betrays my black nationalist inclinations, but having witnessed the GOP's flailing for the past year and a half as they've tried to mount a campaign to unseat President Obama, I've finally come around.

We need a White History Month.

For anyone who speaks on issues of race publicly, the idea has long been a joke – a retort thrown at you from frustrated white folks who believe they are being discriminated against because there doesn't exist a special month set aside to celebrate their racial identity. They cry foul at the notion of Black History Month, Black Entertainment Television, Black Enterprise and everything else with "black" in the title – even, sometimes, going so far as to say these things are racist in nature because their names and missions are "discriminatory". It's preposterous, but they counter that they need a White History Month to provide balance and equality.

After laughing this off for years, I'm now on the same page.

I don't mean White History in the same way we (attempt) to celebrate Black History during February, or Women's History in March. Where these are intended to correct an imbalance in the way history is celebrated from an overwhelming white male perspective, White History Month need not rehash the tales of great white heroism. We need a different approach here.

I mean for us to have a White History Month in the way James Baldwin once suggested a White History Week. During a speech before the National Press Club in 1986, he presented the idea and was later questioned about the seriousness of his remark. He responded:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/09/america-needs-white-history-month

[Speck Tater]

1. Not to mention a National Association for the Advancement of White People.

What we need is to stop using labels and treat all people as people.

An old rabbi was asked by his students how they could tell when it was dawn. Was it when you could tell the difference between a white thread and a black thread? Or when you could see a tree on a distant hill and know if it was an oak or an elm? No, said the rabbi. When you can look at all men and see them as your brothers, because until then we are still living in darkness. (loosely paraphrased from memory, having heard it once years ago.)

[skeewee08]

2. "What we need is to stop using labels and treat all people as people"

Amen!!!!!! This is coming from an African American woman....

[southernyankeebelle]

3. You know when I lived in Maryland at the end of the summer they held feasts for the different

nationalities. They had Irish, German and I always remember the end was the Italian which were the most popular. Everyone came from near and far. They were so much fun. I think each state should do something like that.

[Sunlei]

4. The true history isn't a very nice happy read in most cases

[Matariki]

5. Good article.

Most of the history we learn is built on myths. Even the black history we choose to teach in response to eurocentric learning is centered around myths. But those myths are meant to help a people reclaim a history long denied to them, to instil self-esteem in the face of disempowerment. It may not be exactly ideal, but the rationale is at least noble. The myths of white American history perpetuate oppression and inequality. They instil in white America a false sense of self-imperviousness to facts or logic.

When George Washington can't tell a lie, Abraham Lincoln singlehandedly freed the enslaved, FDR lifted the nation out of depression and Ronald Reagan tore down the Berlin Wall with his bare hands … it's no wonder Michele Bachmann believes the founding fathers fought to end slavery, Newt Gingrich thinks poor black children should be janitors to teach them about work ethic, Rick Perry hunts at "Niggerhead" and sees no problem, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney can tell "jokes" about the president's birth certificate and his campaign co-chair, John Sununu, can refer to the president as "lazy" and "not that bright".

[Democratopia]

6. I think black history goes a long way to deal with the myths.

Black history isn't really about saying one group of people are a different color and have to be treated differently, it is about telling the story of black immigration and how those immigrants and their decendents were abused by the white population and how they fought for freedom and equal rights, and how they enriched America. I don't see any need for segregation of black and white history. It is all there, and if there are important myths that need busting, I think it is because the past has been falsely romanticized for political purposes. That doesn't need a "white history" to put right.