Why haven't I heard anything about Black History Month this year?
Is it because I'm not in elementary school anymore?
Or is it because racism is over now that Barack Obama is president?
It concerns me that maybe America got all its Black History out of its system last month, but maybe I'm speaking too soon; maybe I just don't have my finger on the pulse anymore.
The idea of [Minority Group] History Months really bothers me, anyway. Obviously the solution would be to integrate every person's history to the main school-taught version, and why haven't we done that? It's not revisionist to include Matthew Henson's North Pole exploration with (not even instead of! like I said, not revisionist) Robert Peary's, and maybe throw in the fact that technically Henson touched it first. For that matter, it also wouldn't be revisionist to include how rape wasn't even a crime until recently and women just had to deal with it (and raise the resulting babies). It's also messed up how I didn't learn about Japanese internment camps during the war until I read about it in a freaking novel in college. I felt similarly shortchanged when I had to take an African-American Studies course just to find out what the deal was with lynching and that it was so horrible it's shocking I didn't know anything about it until then.
Maybe I wasn't paying attention in middle/high school history classes (unlikely) or maybe textbook manufacturers aren't paying attention to what's important--and that maybe what's important could make some parents in focus groups uncomfortable. Should history make you uncomfortable? Yes. Should history also make you proud? Not until recently.
4 comments:
Timely post. This weekend I thought the same thing about Black History Month. It's odd that the first time I'm reminded it's Black History Month comes from the Grammys.
Regarding the Japanese Internment Camps - Seriously?? College? What high school did you go to???? Even this weekend Cold Case (I don't watch it, my roommate does) did a whole episode about the camps.
maybe you forgot, but I went to Sanderson. which might explain some things! it's also possible that I'd heard about them but didn't pay attention. i mean, i'm not ruling that out. i also don't know much about JFK's assassination besides what I read in a Don Delillo book, so who knowz!
actually, you know what? I remember lots of stuff from US History that wasn't as interesting as the internment camps or JFK, so I think I'd remember if we'd gone into any kind of detail. my US History class was pretty bland, i'm pretty sure.
BHM is alive in well in the elementary schools. today was the official african-american read in day, where parents come in and read books by aa authors. we even have an assembly, and a special soul food bar for staff in the cafeteria!
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