By Eryn-Ashlei Bailey
Dr. Carter Woodson, Founder of Black History Month
Since 1926, the United States has been "celebrating" Black History Month. It's unclear how the U.S. actually celebrates the month because most of the efforts to advocate for equality and to teach about black history are taken on by black museums, scholars, professors, or other proud black Americans. Black History Month has slowly faded into gray over the past years. Learning about the achievements, less than stellar moments, and struggles of black people isn't even widely studied in universities or high schools. So, if there isn't really much celebrating going on, why celebrate black history month anyway?
Of course, the above reasoning and questions, although sadly very valid, are absolutely preposterous and outrageous. Yet, some people in our country have made such proposals as this I'm sure. What is so important about black history month? How did it come about? Does it matter that we celebrate black suffrage now that we have a black president? Having a black president must mean that the struggle is over. Shouldn't blacks be over it by now?
Celebrating people of a different color:
Black History Month was brought about by the diligent and passion efforts of man by the name of Dr. Carter G. Woodson. (How many of you know who that is?) Dr. Woodson, was the son of ex-slaves that went from working in Kentucky coal mines, to attaining his doctoral degree from Harvard University, and pioneering a system of studying black history. In Dr. Woodson's studies, the overwhelming reality that blacks were not present in the history books thankfully inspired this great man to begin writing black people's history and preserving their designated positions on the sands of time. Interestingly, Dr. Woodson began with a Negro History Week which later grew into black history month. Contrary to conspiracy theory, February is NOT black history month because its' the shortest month of the year. Dr. Woodson chose a specific week in February to commemorate the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and President Abraham Lincoln.
Dr. Woodson's contributions to black history do not end with establishing Negro History Week in 1926. Before this reaching this milestone, in 1915 Dr. Woodson founded the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History which is now called the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History. Dr. Woodson took a third step in marking black history by founding the esteemed Journal of Negro History now known as the Journal of African American History. So why do we study black history? Because of its significance not only to black history but as the efforts of black Americans have shaped the America that we live in today. Barack Obama would not be sitting in the Oval Office without the work of millions of black Americans who preceded him. His presidency would not have drawn such a fervor in the U.S. over the past few years if we didn't understand the cultural implications of this revolutionary mark of American history. We study black history because it is U.S. history and it is integral to maintaining the respect of black achievement as even more milestones are surpassed.
Shouldn't blacks be over it by now?
The progress of equality in this country is a testament to the spirit of individuals that reside in this country. The mark of progress is not in passing legislature to integrate schools, giving blacks the right to vote, or being able to walk down the streets of Birmingham without being sprayed by fire hoses. The mark of progress is the genuine sentiment of the average American with respect to blacks. Looking on the outside of things is never a good indicator of what is happening at the core. Like the old saying goes: "Never judge a book by its cover." Moving from riddles to reasoning, let's see why blacks and other non-blacks are not "over it" by now.
Most recently, the acclaimed and talented musician John Mayer made a drunken spectacle of himself during a Playboy interview. Amidst his drunken stupor, Mayer uttered the word n***** and made blatant racist comments about his ex girlfriend Kerry Washington and Holly Robinson Pete. Gravity surely was bringing him down in this interview! Now all things being equal, let's take into consideration that Mayer's interview was with Playboy and one couldn't expect major philosophical insight from the line of questioning that they were probably partaking in. Secondly, John Mayer was under the influence of alcohol, and like Kanye West taught us, alcohol and media DO NOT mix. Though an old saying would still suggest that: "A drunk man's words speaks a sober man's mind."
Of course, not too afar off was Senator Reid's comments about Barack Obama's light skin and his not having a negro dialect. As we can see from our previous studies during this series, Stokely Carmichael spoke about these unacceptable utterances of comparing the speech of blacks to "Negro dialect". If we hadn't studied Carmichael, it may have been easier to dismiss Reid's comments. Luckily, we have the history of Carmichael and the Black Panther Party to show us that although things look like we're progressing forward, we are still fighting the same or similar battle in the present day.
A virus is so hard to fight off because the DNA of the virus copies the virus of the host cell and hides amongst the DNA of the cell. The cell cannot distinguish the viral DNA from its own. The cell is not even aware that it is being attacked until it's too late. The viral DNA looks, moves with, and assumes characteristics of the host cell. John Mayer, although still an amazing artist, is a living example of this. He played music like a regular Atlanta man and he even dated black women! He was not the person who we would think would utter such horrible words, but when the alcohol got to him, we saw his true colors. Same goes for Harry Reid. He's a politician with power. He isn't even supposed to say things like light-skinned making Barack more acceptable to America or making allusions to a "negro dialect". Although the flow of things may seem steady, these examples awaken the American consciousness to the reality of unfair perceptions of blacks that remain today.
As a black American, I was not properly educated on my history. Not until college when I took a class entitled "The Psychology of the African-American Experience" was I formally instructed on the significance and meaning of being black in America. My question to the readers is how well were you or were you not educated on black history? Was this a result of where you were located geographically in the country? Do you wish you learned more or less and do you think that black history month is still important?
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Discontinue Black History Month? I don't agree. We are living in a melting pot-various cultures, values…There is little to no Black History information in the traditional text books. We need to continue motivating Black History, but not just during the month of February. Obama was influence by MLK.
Kimberly,
I think you misunderstood the message of the post. The name and first paragraph are misleading. The argument in the first paragraph are usually presented by non African-Americans about the imporance of Black History Month. As the article continues, I write about the history of Black History Month and its significance. I'm currently leading the Black History Month Series on my other blog. You can find it at my website.
You are right on target saying that we need to continue Black History Month as this was the point in the post. It's so great to see that we agree and I am not alone in continuing the celebration of rich and at times obscured Black History.
Thanks!
EAB
Kimberly,
Please find more posts on great figures in Black History Month on my website here:
http://cchronicle.com/author/eryn-ashlei-bailey/
EAB