a few points to keep in mind.

[X sansmerci]

You think you haven't got a racist atom in your body, so explaining anything to you will be a headache of dancing around and appeasing your feelings.

People who roll in with "Why's there to XYZ history month?" and "We're all people! Black history month divides us MORE!" do not take it easy when it's pointed out that they hold racist views, cos they have this idea that racism is people being mean on purpose, or that if some one calls you racist or calls you out on doing a racist thing that they are saying you do ALL the racist things and are a big old klan member. They want so badly to be progressive but take it as a personal attack, not as a heads up so they can fix whatever it is.

Anyhow, just 'cos I'm not up for rewriting this post three times doesn't mean I can't try to help.

There are other history commemorative dates, both months and other periods of time, but their lack of celebration where you live or lack of existence for the specific group you are interested in does not hold any meaning as to whether we should eliminate Black History Month.

White history is taught all the time. Black history month exists *because* of the white supremacist bent to the recording of history, and the practice of having US schoolkids learn about the civil war and civil rights eras is a patch on that.

On white people complaining about not being able to use "the N word", in any of it's spellings or with any justification: think about why it is so important to you to be allowed to openly call black people niggers.
If you use a slur, people treat you like a jerk who uses slurs, you are not the injured party.

Eliminating black history month to replace it with ~equality month~ or whatever is still silencing people of color and participating in invalidating the experiences and existence of black people.
There exist plenty of celebrations and days devoted to general easy-to-swallow-because-you-don't-have-to-think-about-your-privilege equality/humanity/general niceness. Participate in one of those and promote the heck out of it if you like.

Racism still is a huge entwined part of society, and your personal lack of seeing people being racist in an openly hateful way as opposed to in a joking undermining way (which, for the record, is still racism, it's just couched in humor so the person it's directed at is robbed of their right to be angry without being belitted as not having a sense of humor) does not mean it doesn't happen. It just means you are privileged enough to live somewhere that you don't have to be aware of it.

[Lady Ravenway]

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first off, have you ever seen a white person in real life mention any racial slur towards a black person in the hope to insult them?

Yes. I've been the victim of it myself. Some guys in a car whistling at my neice who is white, I told them to stop and they said and I quote: "shut the f*** up you ugly n*****." and that's not the first time a white person has insulted me. I've had plenty of people make black jokes in my presence even after I told them it was offensive, it was "too funny" for them to contain themselves and yes they were all white. Of course people of other ethnicity make fun of black people too and plenty of people make fun of white people but, does that make it okay? Are we equal? Should this kind of behavior just be excused?

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5jsxaqm:4="10]and at my last point, i would like to state that if there is black history month, why not latino history month? german history month? chinese history month? does america suddenly think, "oh, well, we enslaved these people so we should dedicate a whole month of studying towards them." ? because, honestly i think that's wrong. yes, we cannot undo what our ancestors did to blacks. but should we really try and make it up to them? how about we just keep them in history books and study about them and others altogether?

They're not even studied equally in the textbooks or in schools. 90% of the curriculum in my state is white european history. The other 10% is black history and guess when it gets studied? I just read a few weeks ago on CNN that a high school in one state is even being told they have to close their Latino studies program because the government decided that it might lead towards hostility towards white people. So I think the month is required, otherwise I don't doubt it would never be studied in K-12.

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5jsxaqm:7="10]what about equality month, hmm? who's to say that blacks have more accomplishments than whites? why does everything even have to be so black and white? where's the grey?.

Don't even get me started on this...white people are celebrated daily. Look at the media and the record of awards given and tell me that white people haven't been given more awards for their achievements than any minority actor or actress. When films like the Last Airbender are still white washing the cast and you're telling me we have equality....yup, sure looks like it. The media is just a visual example. How many recent black authors do you know of? How many are being put on the morning news or given half as much attention? Don't even get me started on black people in the comic book industry. Not only are they constantly being put against a racial stereo-type but the top leading female black figure(Storm from X-men) has Esmeralda eye syndrome. Prove to me that the races are all given equal treatment.

To end my post, I don't understand why anyone has an issue with black history month. Should we have other months to celebrate other minorities? Sure, why not people of other minorities have historical and present achievements to celebrate too, not to mention they deserve to have their histories taught in US schools. Do I think white people need a month? Not really. I wouldn't be against one but, I see them celebrated on their achievements everyday. When I turn on the news I don't see minorities being given awards. When minorities are talked about on CNN they have a special section just for minorities, it's not part of the mainstream or big news. It's a place only people of color might venture to or care to read.

[T4NGO]

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first off, have you ever seen a white person in real life mention any racial slur towards a black person in the hope to insult them? if not, then why is it if someone tries to fit into black culture that is white, and they use the word ***** (even when other black people use it towards themselves) they are automatically bigoted? i honestly think that blacks are a bit more racist towards whites than the other way around. why? well, many consider this to be an effect of hundreds of years of slavery that blacks are still using in an attempted guilt mission.

and another point; stop calling all black people "african americans." it isn't really politically correct. okay, a large majority of blacks have ancestors that descended from africa. however, unless they have traveled to america from africa themselves, they're just simply black people. i see african americans as a very cultural peoples, living in villages and keeping strong connections with roots. i see black people as just that; black. there is a huge cultural difference.

and at my last point, i would like to state that if there is black history month, why not latino history month? german history month? chinese history month? does america suddenly think, "oh, well, we enslaved these people so we should dedicate a whole month of studying towards them." ? because, honestly i think that's wrong. yes, we cannot undo what our ancestors did to blacks. but should we really try and make it up to them? how about we just keep them in history books and study about them and others altogether?

i would like to state, since i shall probably get a load of crap for this, i am not racist. i am not saying there should not be a large amount of salutes going out to blacks and african americans alike, but i just don't feel the huge necessity to make a month devoted towards that. i am also not trying to be stereotypical over blacks when i mention the, "*****". i feel that people often will fit into stereotypes. once people stop doing something so heavily, i won't mention it. until then, it's still out there. i am also not saying that whites deserve a history month. we learn about so many whites every month, and now most americans just sit on their a** and it mcdonalds. once again, stereotypes fit. step out of them and i'll stop bringing them up. that's not to say that whites haven't accomplished things, too.

what about equality month, hmm? who's to say that blacks have more accomplishments than whites? why does everything even have to be so black and white? where's the grey?

It's safer on the internet because they have yet to invent the tool that allows you to shoot people through the computers. lol

[red-tala9]

theres are way more celibrated months other then black history. rolleyes
Women's History Month - March
Irish-American Heritage Month - March
Asian/Pacific Heritage Month - May
Jewish Heritage Month - May
Latino Heritage Month - September 15th through October 15th
LGBT History Month - October
Polish Heritage Month - October
Native American Heritage Month - November
these are only a few exampls biggrin