Black Voices Blog Heats Up

End Black History Month? I Beg to Differ
Posted Feb 4th 2009 3:00PM by Madison J. Gray
Filed under: BlackSpin, Black History 365, News

Almost everywhere you go, you hear people saying now that there's a black president, there couldn't possibly be any intolerance, bigotry or racism in this country because we've proved it by electing a black president, hence black people should shut up complaining about anything that has to do with race.

As much as I enjoy her writing, Detroit Free Press columnist Rochelle Riley in her most recent entry, entitled Now's the Time to End Black History Month somehow gives foundation to the extremists (read: nutjobs) who insist the above is true.

But her call to drop the yearly observances and instead embrace a Kum Ba Yah-flavored, sensibility toward our society is something I can't agree with -- not in the real world. ...
Actually I met Rochelle once very briefly some time ago, and felt she's a smart woman, so this isn't a personal shot at her at all. But as much as I get dissed for the things I write here, I'm sure she knows everybody takes their shots.

I propose that, for the first time in American history, this country has reached a point where we are can stop celebrating separately, stop learning separately, stop being American separately. We have reached a point where most Americans want to gain a larger understanding of the people they have not known, customs they have not known, traditions they have not known.

Who's celebrating separately? Last time I checked, there's about as much stopping other people from observing Black History Month as there is stopping me from celebrating Cinco De Mayo or anyone else from wearing green on St. Patrick's Day. In fact, every time there's a cultural or ethnic observance in this country people go out of their way to be a part of it no matter where their grandparents came from. Why is it that there are calls for us to forget about ours?

Carter G. Woodson, who founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History is one of the first scholars to attach importance to the role of black people in America's history. Had it not been for him, there may well be people still walking around denying our contributions not only to this nation, but to world civilization in general.

In fact, before him, most archaeologists were still teaching that Egypt was not part of Africa.

Read the rest: here.

Read Rochelle Riley's full article: here. I must say I agree with Rochelle Riley:

ROCHELLE RILEY
Now's the time to end Black History Month
BY ROCHELLE RILEY • FREE PRESS COLUMNIST • February 1, 2009

I propose that, from this day forward, we stop telling the tale of two Americas and instead document and celebrate the full and storied, multicultural and multidimensional story that is America in all of its colors, geographies and passions, in all of its ups, downs and exhortations. I propose that, for the first time in American history, this country has reached a point where we are can stop celebrating separately, stop learning separately, stop being American separately. We have reached a point where most Americans want to gain a larger understanding of the people they have not known, customs they have not known, traditions they have not known.


I propose that this month. 142 years after Congress passed the Reconstruction Acts of 1867 that allowed for the Southern states to be re-admitted to the Union, we adopt our own personal reconstruction goals to admit into our lives people who are different, people whose origins differ from ours, people who can teach us so much if we listen.


I propose that this month we become not the America of Rush Limbaugh or the America of Al Franken, but to become an America where all opinions matter and hope trumps hate. I propose that this February, we become not an America of black or white or Hispanic or Asian but an America of black and white and Hispanic and Asian, an America where each of those heritages is a mandatory part of school curriculums.


We don’t need more amendments to the U.S. Constitution; we need more amendments to our own personal behaviors, beginning with changing how we treat each other.


We cannot complain about how those outside America treat us if we treat each other worse.


So this Black History Month, 139 years after Congress granted black men the right to vote, 89 years after Congress granted women the right to vote, we can vote to no longer be a fragmented nation.