Black History Month: Has it run its course? (from MSNBC)

[Kerrytravelers]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10990868/

Black History Month: Has it run its course?
Actor’s comments revive debate over pertinence of a cultural institution



Actor Morgan Freeman has re-energized a debate over the pertinence of Black History Month, now an 80-year-old cultural institution for African Americans.



By Michael E. Ross
Reporter
MSNBC
Updated: 1:56 p.m. ET Feb. 7, 2006


It was created in 1926 by a Harvard professor intent on advancing knowledge of black Americans' role in America. It was expanded 50 years later to encompass the wider role of black participation in the national life.

But in the 80th anniversary year of what has become Black History Month, a long-standing debate has reawakened, with some African Americans questioning its pertinence in the 21st century.

<snip>

Actor revives argument
Comments made by Morgan Freeman in December have re-energized the debate, perhaps more impassioned than any since history professor Carter G. Woodson created the observance in 1926.

“You're going to relegate my history to a month?” Freeman said in an interview on CBS' “60 Minutes.” “I don't want a black history month. ... Black history is American history.”


<continued...>


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All the history books for K-12 education is written by white people for white people. February serves as a reminder for those who are too lazy to add to the rather *slim* view of history throughout the year.


REWRITE THE BOOKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tell the true history!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[BushOut06]

1. In a perfect world? He's right.

However, this is the real world. And honestly, if you didn't have Black History Month, then you woudln't get jack shit during the year. At least BHM forces people to pay attention to black history, even if it is only for one month out of the year, it's still better than nothing at all.

Maybe someday black history will be integrated into American history to the point where it is no longer needed. But that time isn't here yet.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

2. NO!

As a classroom teacher I can tell you it is a special time and looked forward to by not just the kids, but the teachers...an opportunity to talk about important issues, important people, and to help kids of all races understand people just a bit better.

[qwlauren35]

3. I'm in the lazy Camp...

Or maybe I'm just a realist. Those books are NOT going to get re-written. You're never going to see Lewis Latimer or Granville Woods get time in a book that's barely got space for Thomas Edison or Alexander Graham Bell. You're not going to see the WEB duBois vs. Booker T Washington debate take precedence over discussion of World War I, the Depression, or World War 2. I don't think much time was spent discussing the "Roaring Twenties" sufficiently to find room for the Harlem Renaissance.

And last of all, no history book could ever do justice to all of the initiatives for "Negroes" that took place in that brief period called "Reconstruction", from land ownership, to land grant colleges, to political involvement and election to Congress. (Although I admit that it's a d*mned shame that most folks don't know that a handful of African-Americans were voted into Congress during Reconstruction.)

And frankly, too many people just don't give a hoot.

So, me personally, I'll continue to push for the recognition of one SMALL month out of the year to encourage people to explore what 10% of the American population was doing over the last ~400 years.

Honestly, Black History Month has frequently inspired me to research things I had no insight into. Like African-American inventors & scientists, African-American authors, poets & playwrights, African-American women in history (no, not just Harriet Tubman... or Rosa Parks!) Over the last 10 years, I've compiled more information on the subject than I ever expected to. And I share it readily. I even look at this thread as a wonderful reminder...

So please, don't take this month away from me. Because I know that we, both Americans and particularly we African-Americans, would learn a lot less of our history if we didn't highlight it once a year.

[Kerrytravelers]

5. You're hardly in the "lazy" camp.

There are some who never even mention the role of anyone outside of exactly what the text book says. Those are the lazy ones.

I kknow, I know, I know... the books will never be rewritten to be inclusive... but a girl can dream, can't she? :)

[bobbieinok]

4. since way too many young people (including blacks) know very little

about black history--and, appallingly, very little about the beatings, deaths, suffering of the civil rights movement-- doing away with BHM would mean Bull Conners won.

[goodboy]

6. At first, I thought that was a Faux News Headline. He makes a good point

but it would take on a whole new meaning if a southern cracker said it, huh :)