Black History Month Is Wrong !

Before you start looking in my closet for a white hood or a burning cross I hope you will consider what I have to say. I have worked in the "black" media business now for about 7 years and while I will never understand fully the experience of what it is to be black in America I believe I have a better understanding then most white people. I was talking to my closest friend about Black History month (by the way, he is a black man) and my eyes were opened up to the evil that it has caused.

We in America have turned Black History into a trivial pursuit game teaching our children about people who invented some fad or a single man that fought in the American Revolution War. Our children come home proud that they know about the guy who invented the folding chair (Nathaniel Alexander) or the guy that invented the Combined Hatrack and Table (William J Ballow). These things are all nice and good I suppose but they really do not make up what we would consider history.

Black History month according to my Friend Alan Thompson Sr. should be about the history we have forgotten, the history we just did not teach because of the color of the man's (or woman's) skin color. People like Andrew Beard who invented the rotary engine. These people are not great because they did something and where black these people are great because they did great things.

It is sad that we need to have a Black History month because we have turned it into a circus trying to appease a group of people who would not be happy no matter what. Many of the appeased people are white, this is not a black/white issue. These are people who want to feel good about doing something for the black man but they do it by separating those people who should be taught about all year round and instead  regulating them into a "special" month for "special" people.

Quite simply we should trash the whole concept of a Black History month and call it what is should have been from the start it should have been called Forgotten American History month. When I learn about a great inventor, artist, protector of the faith, servant to mankind or business tycoon who is an American then I am proud of them no matter the color. I am proud of MLK and his American ideals not because he was a black man but because he was an American who preached an ideology that changed the world. MLK day was sold to America as "black holiday" because blacks needed a holiday to call their own.

Americans are not a race, we are bound by our own language and our own culture. I have been to Haiti several times and you can walk down the street of this almost all black country and see a person who you know is an American. The person may be black but they move, walk and talk like an American. Lets remember we are a unique people bound not by color, religion or national origin but buy a simple creed of freedom and individuality.

The end of Black History month is coming to a close soon so let us remember that it is not a trivial pursuit game but instead a time to reflect on the 1000's of people of all colors that we Americans have forgotten to teach our children about.