Black History Month slides by every year, just like it did this year; almost unnoticed but quietly reinforcing racism.
Intended to raise awareness about black history, it started as Negro History Week in 1926 when Dr. Carter G. Woodson launched it as an initiative to bring national attention to the contributions of black people throughout American history. Woodson chose the second week of February for Negro History Week because it marks the birthdays of two men who greatly influenced the black American population, Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.
Negro History Week was later extended to encompass the whole month of February. That was a good idea for the time when feasible equality was still a long, long way off, but I believe that the concept has become antiquated and outlived its usefulness, subconsciously reinforcing racism as opposed to battling it.
It is ridiculous to try and cram an entire race’s history into one month of “awareness.”
Why is black history mostly ignored in the American school system until slavery is mentioned? Black history did not start when white people entered it. School curriculum makers must realize that it is not a matter of giving separate but equal attention to white and black history, but simply a matter of fairly teaching our history. Curriculums need to reorganize to teach American history, regardless of the color of those contributing to it.
Actor Morgan Freeman expressed similar views in an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes recently.
“You’re going to relegate my history to a month?” Freeman said.
“I don’t want a Black History Month. Black history is American history,” he said, noting that there are no white or Jewish history months.
Freeman said that the only way to get rid of racism is to stop bringing attention to it.
“Stop talking about it. I’m going to stop calling you a white man,” Freeman said to Wallace. “And I’m going to ask you to stop calling me a black man. I know you as Mike Wallace. You know me as Morgan Freeman. You wouldn’t say, ‘Well, I know this white guy named Mike Wallace.’ You know what I’m sayin’?”
I find that I tend to agree with Freeman.
It seems to me that drawing special attention to black history is the same as saying that it is different than mainstream white history.
By highlighting the differences, it becomes counterproductive.

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