Poll: Is black history month still a good idea?

[TheYellowCellPhone]

I really don't care for it.

I haven't met anyone who gave any thought or cares to it, black or white.

It wasn't until reading the thread's title when I released it is black history month.

 

[Fern Williams]

I think its an awful idea. I think most people don't see the color of ones skin anymore but just simply a person. Black history month is just away of segregating a group of people. You don't have white history month or Asian history month. So why have black history month?????

 

[Carlston]

I'd still side on keeping it, but also consider the possibility of having months for other minorities; relgious, cultural or racial. After-all we already learn about majorities history all the time so it's good to get other perpectives every now and again.

It's a terrible idea, it only furthers the ability to play the race card. Like when a black guy accuses you of enslaving his people, firstly, that was 200 years ago, secondly, I had nothing to do with it (if you knew me, you'd know that my family is south African and Austrian), and thirdly, you've just threatened to stab me if I ever look at you again, when I was talking to the guy behind you. Bastard.

I've never heard any black person, or any minority actually, use "the race card" as you call it, forgive me but it sounds like someone here is a little bitter over a past experience, maybe?

I seen it used all the time, Navy even more to make a E2 feel like he can shut down a E6 by playing it. Hell the other day took my kid to a Chinese buffet and a black family was sitting behind me, they get up for another plate some 3 year old kid looks at me and like he was screaming monster goes "WHITE MAN" and points his finger at me and looks like I was the devil himself.

I don't care to humor "black history" as it is only a rub in other peoples face event. And the mentality of "All white people look alike" so we must all be from the same slavers cloth sickens me to no end.

Now maybe if I didn't have racism shoved down my throat, told i was a racist just cause of the color of my skin (very racist) and just cause I am white, all my ancestors came to America in the 1900's Irish (yeah we all know how THEY were treated) Italians (another stereotyped and discriminated against group. And 1940 my German ancestors (oh yeah they were welcomed with fire bombs to their homes.

Yet all the racism I hear about never comes from my mouth, yet all the evil whitey behavior seems to be exactly mirror by a lot of black racist cause they get a edge or buck out of it.

The few that do avoid using the card, i respect the rest...well the reason they don't have a job does not lie 200 years ago in slaver or 50 years ago in segregation. It lies in their lazy ass right now, since the status quo offer tax breaks for minority and women workers...

I can't respect people who pretend to be a victims group while spewing the exact thing they claim keeps them down on everyone else around them not the same color.

I personally was the reason a African American sailor got court martialed for being a racist. And the best thing out of him mouth durring it? In front of a Navy Admiral...

"I can't be racist. I ain't white."

Nuff said. Want to be treated equal act like it. Act like the poster boy/girl for your stereotype then ***** everyone stereotypes you...whos choice is that?

We won't even get into the "Blacks only" word the never endingly naught N word is, a black says it it's a term of endearment a white says it it's racist...That in its own right sums up the mentality, a victims i get rewards for holding others down from a act that happen 200 years ago to no one still alive and I want special treatment.

No thanks, it just sets people back. Not forwards.

Wheres my Irish, Italian and German heritage months?

 

[UberNoodle]

Why the hell NOT have Black History Month?

I really don't get the intent for being against it. If the rationale is that Black history is not relevant to our society today, then hey, let's get rid of pretty much all of our commemorative days and months. Black History Month does no harm at all, to anybody. It is not to apply blame or, as the poster above claims, to point fingers at Whites. It is certainly not a 'rub in the face' of anybody. It is incredibly foolish to assume such intent, and such an assumption reveals something within you that you really should attend to.

Aknowledgement and seeking to understand the past will ONLY STRENGTHEN THE FUTURE. Ignoring the past because of some illogical fear of being found 'guilty' for it, will only WEAKEN the future. Black History Month, or any commemorative day is NOT about making others feel guilty. Is this attitude I see just a product of self-obsession?

And if you want a commemeration of other groups who have been integral to the creation of the nation as it is today, then push for one. Get off your ass if you care enough and start a movement. If you don't care enough to do that, then you certainly don't care enough to abolish such days.

It is NOT segregation or racism to commemorate a group of people for what they have done or endured as an integral part of the formation of the nation today. What would America be today if it had never a) had black slavery, and b) abolished it?

It exasperates me to no end, the attitude that 'enough time as passed' and we should all just 'get over the past' and be 'treated like human beings'. Enough time has NOT passed. There is still blantant inequality in the institutions of the nation, in economics, education, politics, quality of life, etc.

There are people still alive to day who lived through periods of government sponsored racism and bigotry. There are people who still remember being 'less than human' in the eyes of society. They still tell their children and their grandchildren the stories.

Only somebody with an incredibly shortsighted view of history would entertain that 'enough time has passed' and that we should 'get over it'. Black History Month is not about applying blame or singling out any group for blame. It is about education, something that many people in this thread clearly lack. The way to remove racism and bigotry is not by treating everybody the same. That's just a means to ignore that we are all different, and thus have different needs and social contexts. Racism and bigotry will be useless concepts, NOT when we are all 'the same' but when we all understand eachother and where we've come from and where we want to go. Abolishing any opportunity for further understanding of the cultures in our society is a step towards ignorance of this.

Hommogenisation IS NOT multiculturalism, and it is NOT a cure for racism. If anything, it breeds more tension.

 

[Penguinness]

Apparently it's Homosexual/Bisexual and transgender month in the UK? At least that's what the weekly uni leaflet said.

 

[Rainchild7]

I think its an awful idea. I think most people don't see the color of ones skin anymore but just simply a person. Black history month is just away of segregating a group of people. You don't have white history month or Asian history month. So why have black history month?????

Every other month of the year is white history month.

 

[Faladorian]

One thing that really bothers me is the way that we try to deal with our racist past. Black people wanted to be equal. They are equal... no special treatment because of their skin color, good or bad. That is equal.

Overcompensating for your ancestors' ignorance is not necessary. It reminds me of how Catholicism demands that everybody suffer because their ancestor ate the Apple of Eden however many years ago. It's the same with this generation. Back when people owned African slaves, the blacks were mistreated and the whites were racist. Now, the descendants of the whites are not racist, and the descendants of the blacks are not mistreated. So just leave it.

Racism is unacceptable. Remember, treating one race better than another is, in essence, racism. You can't fix racism with racism. It's like trying to get somebody out of hypothermia by setting them on fire.

"Black history" should be tied in with general history. Black people did things along the way too, and taking those things out and putting them off until February is, well... segregation. The very thing we're apologizing for in the first place.

 

[TheUnstoppableRobman]

You know, I am not really against or for Black History Month, however I am against the general feel of this thread. It's seems like most people here feel like black people are overly entitled and that everything is equal for us in America. It isn't. No no one is allowed to make make me sit in the back of the bus, no I am not openly persecuted, but it doesn't change the fact that I am treated differently for being black by people all the time. Not just white people, but people in general act like they fear me, or dislike me because I'm black. I do agree that it is outrageous to use slavery against a white person in an argument, and white people aren't racist for simply making cultural observations. But, I don't get any kind of preferential treatment for being black. EVER. From anywhere. I'm either treated equally, or less than, period. I just don't get why people thinks blacks get so much for being black, my question is what do we get?

 

[gostlyfantom]

My views on black history month are much like Morgan Freeman's

i could not agree more, if you do not want racism, stop talking about it

 

[BioHazardMan]

Morgan Freeman is so intelligent, love his voice too.

 

[Manicotti]

BHM is ridiculous. It's like treating someone else's sunburn by beating him over the head with a refrigerator. There's no functional POINT to it besides making making everyone who isn't black feel a little guilty for no other reason than because they're not black - so it's basically racism coming from the opposite direction for once.

Black people haven't gotten shat on throughout history, American or not, any worse than any other ethnicity. Where's our Attempted-Exterminations-of-the-Jews Guilt Trip Hoedown? Where's "All Kleenex Is On Sale" Month to apologize for the Trail of Tears? What about the Polish, the Indians, the Chinese, the Japanese, the Mexicans, or even the Russians?

Even as a kid, I found BHM to be extravagant. There isn't a damn thing making black history so much more special than the history of any other melanin level that it deserves its own month on the calendar, other than the self-absorbed guilt of the people who instituted it to begin with.

No, "enough time" hasn't passed, and nor should we just "get over it." But it's stupid and violently hypocritical to this noticeably elevate the suffering of one race above the suffering of all of the equally-shat-upon other races in some poorly-grasped definition of "equality."

 

[Lazzi]

My views on black history month are much like Morgan Freeman's

i could not agree more, if you do not want racism, stop talking about it

When I doubt always listen to Morgan Freeman.

I Kind of have the same feelings about hispanic heratige month (october right?), Im hispanic and everything but I dont actully see the point in having a month deticated for you.