Please read past the title! Every single year someone advocates for the abolition of BHM, but this one is special, lol.
Black History Month, Again?
It has become a placebo to satisfy our need to belong, when we should be learning history's lessons.
"I'm glad this is a leap year because we'll have an extra day this month to hear platitudes about blacks in America." That was the sentiment expressed by a friend -- who is also black -- in a recent discussion about Black History Month and the progress of blacks in America.
I agree with him; and I believe it to be a true and valid depiction of how we have all come to deal with matters of race today, especially since the election of Barack Obama. We need to take the blinders off. There's no better illustration of those blinders than what was captured in the finger-wagging episode between Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer and President Obama. As noted in Politico, "If there were any illusion that 2012 would be the post-racial election most Americans hoped for, it vanished with that single shake of a finger." I thought 2008 was the postracial election. So much for that idea.
This brings me back to my friend's sarcastic assessment of Black History Month. While I get the sarcasm, I also take from his words a genuine concern that the annual observance has become nothing more than a placebo designed to further the black community's sense of "belonging" in America, but to no real political or sociological effect.
It should not be lost on us that the racial lines between black and white America are not as well defined as they once were. In fact, those lines have taken on new hues and textures as America has changed.
But despite the increasingly camouflaged nature of race relations (and racism), the story of black people in America continues to be told through the lives, experiences and contributions of men and women of uncommon strength, imagination and success. That story has survived the abomination of slavery and flourished, despite separate-but-equal treatment in the past. It is, in its purest form, the story of men and women who remained faithful to our country's ideals and who continue to pass on to the next generation their story of devotion to family and community, God and country.
Black history is not so much about the past as it is about our present and our future. It helps us define who we are and what we mean to a nation that still struggles with matters of race. No doubt, enormous strides have been made since the days blacks were water-hosed for wanting an education, or refused service at a lunch counter, but there remains so much unsettled business buried beneath the surface of our relationship with the rest of America.
And let's be honest about that, too: This racial dynamic may have many hues to it, but its primary colors have been and will remain black and white. Consequently, we must not allow black history to be diminished -- or the need to recognize where it has led us to be appropriated by others in order to elevate their own causes or agendas.
The fact that there are perceived (or real) "racial overtones" in the image of a white woman wagging her finger in the face of a black man; or in referring to that same black man as a "food stamp president"; or in equating more than 300 years of black struggle with pop-culture issues should tell each of us that we need to deal with the unsettled stuff beneath the surface as we jealously protect the rich legacy that is black history.
Read the rest at the source.
No, really. Read the rest. It's Michael Steele, so you know it's gonna get foolish eventually.
Previously this month: Day One, Day Two, Day Three, Day Four, Day Five, Day Six, Day Seven, Day Eight, Day Nine, Day Ten, Day Eleven, Day Twelve, Day Thirteen, Day Fourteen, Day Fifteen, Day Sixteen, Day Seventeen, Day Eighteen.
Black History Month, Again?
It has become a placebo to satisfy our need to belong, when we should be learning history's lessons.
"I'm glad this is a leap year because we'll have an extra day this month to hear platitudes about blacks in America." That was the sentiment expressed by a friend -- who is also black -- in a recent discussion about Black History Month and the progress of blacks in America.
I agree with him; and I believe it to be a true and valid depiction of how we have all come to deal with matters of race today, especially since the election of Barack Obama. We need to take the blinders off. There's no better illustration of those blinders than what was captured in the finger-wagging episode between Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer and President Obama. As noted in Politico, "If there were any illusion that 2012 would be the post-racial election most Americans hoped for, it vanished with that single shake of a finger." I thought 2008 was the postracial election. So much for that idea.
This brings me back to my friend's sarcastic assessment of Black History Month. While I get the sarcasm, I also take from his words a genuine concern that the annual observance has become nothing more than a placebo designed to further the black community's sense of "belonging" in America, but to no real political or sociological effect.
It should not be lost on us that the racial lines between black and white America are not as well defined as they once were. In fact, those lines have taken on new hues and textures as America has changed.
But despite the increasingly camouflaged nature of race relations (and racism), the story of black people in America continues to be told through the lives, experiences and contributions of men and women of uncommon strength, imagination and success. That story has survived the abomination of slavery and flourished, despite separate-but-equal treatment in the past. It is, in its purest form, the story of men and women who remained faithful to our country's ideals and who continue to pass on to the next generation their story of devotion to family and community, God and country.
Black history is not so much about the past as it is about our present and our future. It helps us define who we are and what we mean to a nation that still struggles with matters of race. No doubt, enormous strides have been made since the days blacks were water-hosed for wanting an education, or refused service at a lunch counter, but there remains so much unsettled business buried beneath the surface of our relationship with the rest of America.
And let's be honest about that, too: This racial dynamic may have many hues to it, but its primary colors have been and will remain black and white. Consequently, we must not allow black history to be diminished -- or the need to recognize where it has led us to be appropriated by others in order to elevate their own causes or agendas.
The fact that there are perceived (or real) "racial overtones" in the image of a white woman wagging her finger in the face of a black man; or in referring to that same black man as a "food stamp president"; or in equating more than 300 years of black struggle with pop-culture issues should tell each of us that we need to deal with the unsettled stuff beneath the surface as we jealously protect the rich legacy that is black history.
Read the rest at the source.
No, really. Read the rest. It's Michael Steele, so you know it's gonna get foolish eventually.
Previously this month: Day One, Day Two, Day Three, Day Four, Day Five, Day Six, Day Seven, Day Eight, Day Nine, Day Ten, Day Eleven, Day Twelve, Day Thirteen, Day Fourteen, Day Fifteen, Day Sixteen, Day Seventeen, Day Eighteen.
Just this sentence alone... Percieved (or real) and then...um, the quotation marks. How could he make that sentence more ambivalent? Is he going to start inserting shrugging smileys emoticons?