I was recently reading a post from a good friend of mine that included a 60 Minutes interview with actor, Morgan Freeman in which Mr. Freeman said that he did not want a Black History Month. My poor misguided white brother and followers seemed to really agree with the context and content of the interview. I responded with the following: I love Morgan Freeman, but I do not agree with premise that there should be no Black History Month. Although, I understand the context under which he made the comment, I dont want a Black History Month, I can tell you that there is certainly merit in having the month as well as having strong Black Studies programs in our educational system. Black history is a very big part of American history and should not be relegated to just a month. However, I would not want my white friends to misconstrue that I make no apologies for the discipline and the scholarship of it. Quite the contrary. It is just as important as the history of all the other ethnic and racial groups here an there is nothing wrong with it. It is very dangerous to think that we should just be rid of black history and just have American history. To do so would suggest that we (black people no matter where you are from) trust that scholars would be fair and equal in its application. We have seen what happens when we trust in handing our history over to the establishment - we get written out of it or our importance or presence in events is minimized or diminished. Why should we have to forget about our history as a specialized discipline? These people who continue to assert such silliness act as though its going to solve something or make America or the world, for that matter safe and stop racism. Thats nonsense! Thats like me asking a Scottish American to stop wearing a kilt; asking an Irishman to not try to learn Gaelic; or asking a Jew to not study Torah for their Bar or Bat Mitzvah. Whats more, I would take exception to anyone who would think that it is somehow divisive. If learning more about myself is divisive and keeps up racial issues, then we have a real problem, because asking me to compromise on black history in anyway is racist and divisive! In, fact, any black person who would ask such a thing of another probably needs to have more black history studies than I. In fact, I challenge anyone who would like to try to bring me to task on the matter.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 17:51:18 +0000
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