Black History Month: For non-Americans | recent posts | Forum

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Dewati

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Post: 78083491_1 created on Thu, 23 Feb 2012 04:30:32 +0000
Posted: Thu, 23 Feb 2012 04:30:32 +0000

As a non-American, I had never heard of Black History Month and therefore I do not understand the concept. The only thing I had ever remembered about was the Civil Rights for Blacks, how a black woman (Rosa Parks) was arrested for being in a segregated white bus, and finally, Martin Luther King, Jr.

So, can you tell me what this is all about? For the benefit of non-Americans the world over who watched the "I have a dream" speech?

Morbid Gnome

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Post: 78083491_2 created on Thu, 23 Feb 2012 05:03:36 +0000
Posted: Thu, 23 Feb 2012 05:03:36 +0000

Throughout the entirety of the United States' history, blacks have been seen as lesser beings. For a good part of our history, they were seen as being sub-human. For all the preaching that our country does about equality, we fail epically when it comes to practicing it. Our schools often focus on the contributions of whites. Black History Month was born as way of highlighting the often-overlooked impact that black Americans have had on our country. It exists to raise awareness, and as a small attempt to give people the credit they're due.

Unfortunately, it often seems(to me) that Black History Month focuses on the people that we actually DO learn about during normal coursework. We generally are taught about MLK, Rosa Parks, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Tubman. Sometimes George Washington Carver, Sojourner Truth, W.E.B. Dubois, and Malcom X. Thurgood Marshall might get a shout-out in modern U.S. history class.
The odd black writer makes his/her way onto English Lit curricula(Angelou and Hurston are the only ones that immediately come to mind), but they're rather rare outside BHM.

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Post: 78083491_3 created on Thu, 23 Feb 2012 21:35:09 +0000
Posted: Thu, 23 Feb 2012 21:35:09 +0000

Black history month exists as a band-aid to the facts that the way we tell history has written out the experiences, accomplishments and, in some cases, existence, of people of color. The reason people of color were treated like lesser beings in the writing of history is because they were (are) treated that way in all areas, so part of black history month is not just patching over the gaping holes in childrens' knowledge, but about talking about how deeply ******** up things were in the US up through the 70s or so. (Which is not to imply that racism is actually a problem of the past, but most black history month lessons and activities don't touch on anything beyond "blacks were enslaved, that was really ******** up, then even after they were free we treated openly them like dirt, then MLK-Rosa Parks-Civil Rights moment happened!" )

It's a mixed bag since, as demonstrated by this forum, all sorts of lovely racist sentiments come out to play when otherwise not vocally racist white people have to ughhhhhh learn about this agaaaaain (which is grotesque), but it's not like we've fixed the teaching of history enough that you don't need a supplement to remind you that non-white people did significant things.

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Post: 78083491_4 created on Thu, 23 Feb 2012 22:29:47 +0000
Posted: Thu, 23 Feb 2012 22:29:47 +0000

I never really thought about Black History Month outside of America... Make you wonder about the signafigance of it...

Dewati

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Post: 78083491_6 created on Sun, 26 Feb 2012 05:24:29 +0000
Posted: Sun, 26 Feb 2012 05:24:29 +0000

Morbid Gnome

Unfortunately, it often seems(to me) that Black History Month focuses on the people that we actually DO learn about during normal coursework. We generally are taught about MLK, Rosa Parks, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Tubman. Sometimes George Washington Carver, Sojourner Truth, W.E.B. Dubois, and Malcom X. Thurgood Marshall might get a shout-out in modern U.S. history class.
The odd black writer makes his/her way onto English Lit curricula(Angelou and Hurston are the only ones that immediately come to mind), but they're rather rare outside BHM.

Back in Australia, we don't seem to have the same thing like that for the indigenous Australians. They too were once seen as inferior sub-humans until the 1950's and 60's, when there are movements similar to that of the US during the Civil Rights Era. And we also have the Stolen Generation, in which thousands of them are forced to become white, and learn the ways of white people. In other words, they are forced to assimilate.

Did they tell you about how blacks are forced to assimilate? No; they are forced to be separate. Separate from others, until the Civil Rights Era. Now, in this day and age, blacks and whites can do what they do best: make some sweet love, be friends with each other, and most importantly, helping each other.

I had yet to see such a thing like that happening in Australia. We gave them Native Title, we tried to close the 15 year life expectancy gap (is there such a thing like that in America? A 15-year life expectancy gap? Between blacks and whites?), and we have bickering in politics and nothing has been done yet. And we still haven't learnt about famous indigenous Australians! (Possibly because of a taboo that we have to respect)