I hate it. It’s one month out of the year of the utter most condescension and is, seemingly, this passive aggressive government mandate that does little, if nothing, to better race relations, and help people understand the history of a people who have been treated less than human, to put it lightly, and have been are subjected to ongoing, systemic racism.
To give one month out of the year to a group of people whose ancestors (my great-great-great grandmother worked on a plantation) basically built this country with literal blood, sweat and tears is not only infuriating but blatantly insulting. Maybe the initial Black History Month back in the 1920s- where it started out as a week- was necessary and possibly helped people cope with the past better (this is a stretch… is there a word for “greater than a stretch?”). That and Jim Crow laws. It’s hard not to be sarcastic when dealing with this subject. I mean, c'monnnn. When will there be a conference about how important it is to integrate Black History month into the school year?
Also, February is the shortest month of the year which has been argued countless times as an overtly offensive act. Obviously Black History Month is not for black people, because we know our history, or at least I hope most of us do, so this month is to educate people outside of that realm, but very gingerly, omitting unpleasant (real) details about slavery and ongoing discrimination and atrocious physical and mental mistreatment. Nowadays Black History Month focuses on the Civil Rights movement, like black people didn’t exist before then. I mean, there have been some lesson plans on Harriet Tubman, Fredrick Doulass, and that peanut butter dude, but as far as I can remember there was just a brief mention of the fact they were slaves.
On a different note, I’ve been long-meaning to write an essay about how slavery is taught in high school. I distinctly remember sitting in one of my history classes, completely baffled and thoroughly irritated as the teacher espoused this embarrassingly inappropriate rhetoric about how some slaves LIKED being slaves and how some were treated “better” than what we might be led to believe. If only I wasn’t a quiet, mousy teenager who feared the judgmental eyes of my peers, I would have retorted with the obvious response: “They were all still owned by other humans. This is a wildly irresponsible discussion to have at this point, considering we haven’t gone over the actual conduct of slave traders and masters. Families were torn apart. Spirits were broken through physical and mental torture. There were books on how to ‘break your slave.’ Teacher, you’re an asshole.” However, I kept my mouth shut and was silently seething in my seat, sure people could see steam shooting out of my ears.
Anyway, during this month I can remember three people who were kept in rotation every year, which was not necessarily a bad thing, but it held the class back from learning other predominant or maybe not so predominate black figures. Hearing about MLK for ten years and hearing nothing about Phillis Wheatley or Linda Brent Harriet Anne Jacobs, two former slaves that transcended societal restrictions to publish works about their experiences in captivity. Reading their narratives inspired me not only as a black woman, but as a writer and no one will ever hear of them unless they research or take specific classes illuminating their integral presence in history.
What do you think about Black History month?
I shall end this with a quote from a brilliant, noteworthy black man with the gosh-darn best narrating voice the world has ever heard.
“I don’t want a black history month. Black history is American history.”
-Morgan Freeman