Is Black History Month Necessary?

[Tigerruss 576]

As a white guy, I've never really been affected by it. I don't really view it as one race being more deserving than another, I view it as "Hey, a lot of shit happened, let's make sure it doesn't ever happen again, ever, for the rest of eternity, ever."

I more so thought of it is a peace offering for all the stuff that happened, though this makes more sense.

 

yea their should be other months too like a Asian American month, Native American month, Women's month etc.

Couldn't we just have a civil rights month or a civil rights season? Various groups and their fights for rights could be highlights of different weeks(possibly multiple weeks for each subject) to keep it focused. While the adversaries and the persecuted may be different for each group, they are still fighting for one thing, the rights of the majority for the minority.All of that being said It is hard to ignore the contribution African Americans have made to building the USA we know of today. And note, probably one of the biggest reasons for why Native Americans weren't enslaved in the USA was because there was a European ban on it, back when the Vatican still had political power. (though they didn't ban the African slave trade so...I think they might have even okayed the notion that Africans had no souls...)

 

 

Even though discriminated slavery is bad, at least there wasn't slavery across the entire populace... While it is harder to rationalize that if you are a religious people that are supposed to care about others, it also would allow for slavery to be more rampart and just a part of everyday life. Which could have made it even harder to stop.This is just my own theory, I HAVE NO PROOF THAT THIS IS HOW THINGS WOULD WORK.

Edited February 7, 2014 by Tigerruss

[_The Door To Light_ 1,507]

All I'm going to say here is we all bleed red .No one should be valued more or less due to being born with a skin color they had no choice in . It's who they are as a person that matters and their personal accomplishments that should matter regardless of race or gender . We should celebrate great accomplishments and movements that helped make equality more possible whether it's race or gender oppression.

Agreed. All races and ethnicities have had great accomplishments. We should celebrate them all, and every day.

[Caity 3,946]

We don't celebrate it in my country, but I have heard black people themselves complaining about it saying why are they making a difference, it shouldn't be one month they should be treated with respect every month bla-de-bla-bla

Either way since it isn't really a thing here, it doesn't really affect me whether it happens or not.  

 

Though when you think about it, the slavery, torture and all they had to go through, where is the Jewish History month?  

[Think Pink 1,967]

Literally every month is white history month, can't you finally let someone else have a month in their honor? 

[atheist123 583]

I come from New Zealand, so our treatment of our indigenous race is slightly different (they weren't subjected to slavery, for instance). We have one public holiday dedicated to remembering the crimes Europeans committed to Maori people (stealing land, wars etc). A month seems a little excessive but it's not too bad, we spend about a month talking about Waitangi Day, so we have an informal Maori Month.

 

I don't know the culture of America enough to comment, but what acknowledgement of Native Americans do you guys have? I know there's Thanksgiving, which has something to do with Native Americans.

[Think Pink 1,967]

I come from New Zealand, so our treatment of our indigenous race is slightly different (they weren't subjected to slavery, for instance). We have one public holiday dedicated to remembering the crimes Europeans committed to Maori people (stealing land, wars etc). A month seems a little excessive but it's not too bad, we spend about a month talking about Waitangi Day, so we have an informal Maori Month.

 

I don't know the culture of America enough to comment, but what acknowledgement of Native Americans do you guys have? I know there's Thanksgiving, which has something to do with Native Americans.

I'm quoting you to answer your question and some other people that I didn't get a chance to. 

 

There is a Native American history month. And in response to all of the people saying it's unfair only black people get it: there is also a Hispanic history month, women's history month, Asian-Pacific history month, and probably like a ton of others--those are just ones off the top of my head. 

[Godot 513]

there isn't a white history month because there doesn't need to be one. white people as a whole have literally never faced oppression in the history of the US and most US history focuses almost exclusively on Straight White Men™ anyways so why should there be an extra month dedicated to them

 

black history month + other history months are important because they're so often overlooked in history. there's an entire generation of black slaves who have literally been wiped from all records due to being sold in the slave trade so yea it is really necessary to focus on their history

[atheist123 583]

I'm quoting you to answer your question and some other people that I didn't get a chance to. 

 

There is a Native American history month. And in response to all of the people saying it's unfair only black people get it: there is also a Hispanic history month, women's history month, Asian-Pacific history month, and probably like a ton of others--those are just ones off the top of my head. 

 

That's good to hear (: it seems a bit ridiculous in how PC it is, but at least they are consistently politically correct... the only month in New Zealand which gets any publicity is New Zealand Music Month. There are probably some other ones, but we usually just have events around public holidays like ANZAC day for remembering fallen soldiers and Waitangi Day for Maori/European relations.

[Dracozombie 4,554]

What I don't understand is why blacks should scrap the whole thing simply because other oppressed races/groups don't always get the same attention via holiday or celebratory month or whatever.  If it annoys you because it's everywhere, can't you just tolerate it for their month so the people invested in it can do their own thing?

[Shana09 5,769]

Black History Month is to reflect on the fact that there are amazing African Americans that have made society better, and to remind us how far we've come in society. We shouldn't forget about our past, we always need to reflect on it to become a better person and make society a better place for everyone, so that no one will be unequal.

[MasterRoxas13 340]

I agree  a civil rights month would be a great idea since now some groups of people are feeling like only black history and Latino history are being appreciated.

[Think Pink 1,967]

That's good to hear (: it seems a bit ridiculous in how PC it is, but at least they are consistently politically correct... the only month in New Zealand which gets any publicity is New Zealand Music Month. There are probably some other ones, but we usually just have events around public holidays like ANZAC day for remembering fallen soldiers and Waitangi Day for Maori/European relations.

Yeah, it's not nearly enough after all we've done to Native Americans, but I think at least for now it's a nice start. They're also going to change the name of the R**skins football team to something less offensive, so I think as a nation we're moving in the right direction. Ahh yeah New Zealand didn't make the same mistakes America did in terms of abusing people as far as I know, so it makes sense you'd only have a few.