Am I the only person who doesn't like Black History Month?

[Grunt_Man11]

Tip for Life: You're never the only person.

EDIT: (To add some sort of content to my post) I agree, Black History month is basically reverse racism. It, from what I've seen, does more harm than good.

Tip for Life: Hyperbole is a perfectly acceptable use of the English language and you should really stop being so literal.

And no, OP. You aren't alone. Morgan Freeman doesn't like it, either.


Now, I normally hate "/thread", but...Come on. It's Morgan fucking Freeman. [/thread]

That's a perfect response to the whole idea of "---- History Month" because now La Raza has pushed through a "Hispanic History Month" and the whole idea of having some month delegated to one particular race is racism. If I want to learn about the history of a certain heritage, I'll do it, if I don't, I won't.

It's one of those "good intentions" that lead to the results it was specifically trying to avoid.

Pretty much this, and Morgan Freeman is awesome.

All of these " history months" are a form of government endorsed, and funded, racism. Just like all those programs for minority groups for college and such.

Affirmative Action is the biggest piece of racism I've ever seen. It is the government telling people that because "your race is too stupid and incompetent to get these jobs on your own merits, so we'll just give them to you."

Talk about a major slap in the face there. That is just plain insulting.
Racism is alive and well, but now it's dressed in a pretty pink bow.

 

[Gothproxy]

Well, it could be worse. My 'culture' get's one day out of the year. And for some reason, everyone feels it's a day to go out and get drunk. Talk about labeling the Irish. Sheesh. Think I need to drink that thought away.

 

[Terminate421]

No

I hate it when our school puts emphasis on it. I don't care what Malcom X thought, I don't have anything against black people but we don't need februaury (one of my least favorite months) to be recognized as a history month for a single race. If we did, then where is "Native American history month" for taking all of their land? Or where is "Asian American history month" for denying them the ability to travel oversees in the late 1800's?

 

[Riff Moonraker]

Try having a 'White History Month' the NAACP will be on you like.. well, white on rice. W.E.T "White Entertainment Televison" Al Sharpton will sh*t a brick!

So no, Black History Month is a retarded idea, but white america has to give in.

(I'm asian btw)

That right there is the crux of the problem. It would just be best to not have any at all, for any culture, rather than just one. Because I believe your first comment is exactly what would happen, and to be honest, that offends me.

All that should be necessary, would be for us to treat each other with dignity and respect, and that should be enough.

 

[player3141]

The only thing that Black history month does is build a barrier between the races. The sooner we can get rid of race specific things (black history month, affirmative action, etc.), the sooner we can completely(nearly) rid ourselves of racism.

 

[ultimateownage]

Everything where you focus on someone for a specific point is stupid.
Stop bringing attention to sexuality, gender, race, and other things people keep barking on about, and maybe the world will be less discriminatory. But that isn't what a lot of them want, a lot of them just want to see 'every man' suffer because they're not 'a minority'.

 

[bombadilillo]

People should let their own individual actions dictate how they are seen, not where they come from.

Let's take the Holocaust remembrance movement: it's important to remember, but all the reams of books, documentaries, films, etc. on the subject has not saved one life in former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Sudan, etc.

NOT ONE.

Thats a bold statement. Im sure no missionaries were inspired by any of those things...NOT ONE.


On topic. I think its very important to remember the crappy things that happened in American history. With all the patriotic peacock BS you have nowdays its important to keep things in perspective. Even if nobody is 3 generations removed from an actual slave. The institution and its replacements inherently shaped a lot of the country.

TS its alright to feel ashamed of it. Its not fun WW2 we kicked ass history. The whole country should be ashamed of that time and those actions. But we SHOULD remember them and..."celebrate" isnt the right word. Commemorate.

 

[MasterOfHisOwnDomain]

I'm not adverse to the idea, but I don't think it makes up for better integrating the history of black people into the history curriculum or elsewhere.

 

[Malrock]

I am half Jamaican and half English. I have no end of arguments with my family about slavery. They preach about something that they did not experience. It's terrible and understandable why they have such strong emotions regarding it, but black people were not the only ones used as slaves throughout history. Further more, the Jamaican half of my family are the most ignorant racists I know. I'm blessed to live in a truely multiculteral area and used to study world culture, so I travelled a lot. I have close friends from a huge range of ethnicities and backgrounds (not just my generation, but older too) and I don't know anyone that still holds as much prejudice as they do. So colour me biased but the concept of black history month gets my back up, when you consider (as the OP said) that the world is full of cultures that get little to no attention when educating our youth.
PS. Another irritance I find is that people use black or white to describe a group. I could be 'black' and have a heritage in any number of places around the world, the same is true of being 'white' or any other colour people use as a collective adjective.
/end rant

 

[Janktrio]

I live in Canada so I don't know if we even have a black history month since it's never mentioned, although YTV did say something about it once so maybe we do have it. But the idea seems silly to me, why celebrate the history of a single race for a month? Why not have a month or a day celebrating foreign history in general instead of simply celebrating a single races' history? To me it seems like more of a "we're sorry about the slavery and racism" thing. It's good to apologize for what happened in the past but that's the past and it's over with, why keep bringing up something that is already gone? Why give it a whole month even, why not just a single memorial day for the slaves?

And on the note of a foreign history day my school already has that and it's really cool. It's called International Day. On that day volunteers set up stands decorated with their ancestral country's flag and they sell traditional food from their country to people. We also get volunteers to do traditional dances from their country and our school's jazz band plays awesome music later that night. It's really popular and it raises money for our school. Seeing how popular it is at my school I think it could work as a national holiday, who else thinks there should be an International Day as an official national holiday?

 

[Hristo Tzonkov]

Samurai's had a way of life and ideology rather than religion.They're more akin to monks and some people still follow the Samurai's way.Hell any road of self betterment could be considered the way of the Samurai.

 

[Thundero13]

You really have black history month in America?!
I agree with you anyway.

 

[derelict]

I agree wholeheartedly, Black History Month should no longer exist and should be replaced with something like 'Foreign Culture Month' which would be a month dedicated to finding out things about other cultures and creeds that you otherwise would not.

This is absolutely off topic, but...I tried to smush your avatar. =/

As for on topic: eh, why ask why when you can ask why not? While we're at it, lets make it a federal holiday - the whole month. Let's also have a motorcycle month, where everyone participating takes a trip on their bikes.

 

[Risingblade]

How about we gives days to every other race as well. Chinese day will have Chinese at a discount and free tacos on Mexico day!

 

[JohnDoey]

I've never really enjoyed Black History Month. Being half african and raised by my single parent black mother, I was always encouraged to get involved with the culture. But for some reason every Black History Month a good majority of africans I know will use the sentence:
"I/We (or any other group terms) went through the slave trade."
It just really infuriates me how a 15 year old boy thinks that just because he great great grandfather went though frankly barbaric events he also went through them too.
It also annoys me that their aren't any history lessons based around any other cultures apart from black history month. (that i know of.) Yes, all cultures get celebrated in one way or another but most are done collectively. An entire month is given to Black people.
Although I do see that they deserve this month, don't you think it would be a good idea to let other cultures who have gone through slavery or even been wiped out completely have their few minutes of fame a year?
Yes it was racist, Yes it was terrible, Yes this is probably whites making up for what they did.
But just think... Samurais had their way of life destroyed after guns were legalized in Japan. Now they live on in the occasional crappy film. I think they deserve at least their own day if not a month or Norse Pagans... they got their religion condemned by Christianity and are no longer classed as a religion in the UK or Europe excluding their countries of origin (norway, denmark)
I know haters will hate but please do. I want to see your point of view.

I agree with you being african american I was always pissed when other people complained like they were slaves themselves and other cultures barely get mention in school.

 

[theultimateend]

I don't mind Black History month. What I do mind is some people telling me that I should feel sorry for slavery and that I as a white person bear some guilt. Half my family didn't even come over here until 1920, and the other half lived in the north. Furthermore, part of my family is Irish, and it's not as if THEY suffered anything ever in the states.

It's a bit funny that the whole original sin thing lives on with white people.

"You oppressed my people!"

"I'm 13..."

The only thing that Black history month does is build a barrier between the races. The sooner we can get rid of race specific things (black history month, affirmative action, etc.), the sooner we can completely(nearly) rid ourselves of racism.

Being proud, or being judged, because of what you are is a great failing in society.

People should not be proud because they are black, white, male, or female (etc, etc). They should be proud because of what they accomplished.

If you can't control an aspect of yourself it should not be something you dwell on.

 

[Brandon237]

I agree with you here on all but semantics. Racism is racism, it is not reverse racism, when one race is favoured or oppressed, you have racism. It is not reverse because of who is at which end of the stick.

I agree. I only made the distinction because many people don't see the difference. Many people I know don't consider favoring as racism.

Who are these people and what planet are they from?
Hard and blatant oppression is stopped quickly and people fight against it, hence its ability to damage is reduced, favouring on the other hand is not fought against so quickly, it is a subtler oppression and so people do not resist, allowing it to do much more damage and cause a lot of political strife without ever really being stopped.

 

[Ipsen]

I've never really enjoyed Black History Month. Being half african and raised by my single parent black mother, I was always encouraged to get involved with the culture. But for some reason every Black History Month a good majority of africans I know will use the sentence:
"I/We (or any other group terms) went through the slave trade."
It just really infuriates me how a 15 year old boy thinks that just because he great great grandfather went though frankly barbaric events he also went through them too.
It also annoys me that their aren't any history lessons based around any other cultures apart from black history month. (that i know of.) Yes, all cultures get celebrated in one way or another but most are done collectively. An entire month is given to Black people.
Although I do see that they deserve this month, don't you think it would be a good idea to let other cultures who have gone through slavery or even been wiped out completely have their few minutes of fame a year?
Yes it was racist, Yes it was terrible, Yes this is probably whites making up for what they did.
But just think... Samurais had their way of life destroyed after guns were legalized in Japan. Now they live on in the occasional crappy film. I think they deserve at least their own day if not a month or Norse Pagans... they got their religion condemned by Christianity and are no longer classed as a religion in the UK or Europe excluding their countries of origin (norway, denmark)
I know haters will hate but please do. I want to see your point of view.

First off, I'll argue that the main and general reason why Black History month (as opposed to some "cultural minority appreciation month") exists because no other minority has had the population, stigma, and yet still the positive effect on America than the African slaves brought here "so long ago".

I don't see what "an entire month given to Black people" amounts to myself; if ignorance can be measured, plenty accrues in a month. I also think devoting a specific time to learn about "black history" is fundamentally flawed; you don't gain as much as you should learning about people living triumphantly through stigma and strife by devoting compulsory education about it. If you want a successful Black History month, focus more on African culture, it's impact on American history, and possibly how it coincides with other cultures (since, you know, we all have to live here together).

But don't knock the month too hard for what it tries to do. Its a time for reverence of the struggles of the past, and an outlook towards the future. You know, that 'respecting tradition' thing?

 

[SuperNova221]

I think anything I'm going to say will have already been said in here at least once, but I think it's counter-productive at best. It seperates blacks from the rest, singles the group out and tries to draw attention to the "differences2 between blacks and whites.

also /thread on the Morgan Freeman video.