Black History Month is right around the corner...

[Riviera de la Mancha]

Ontological Empiricism

Annata Cannata

First of all, there are other history months- http://smithsonianeducation.org/heritage_month/
Second of all, the reason there are history months is because thats the only time their history will be taught. Despite what you learn in school there are other Black people that accomplished things besides Martin Luther King Jr. And do we even learn about any specific Native American people besides Pocahontas? The problem is that public school teaches about only one or two token non-white people and call it a day when there is so much more.

Question: If these months are dedicated to other parts of history, whether racial or gender, why is Black History Month the only one we (I suppose I am using this as a royal 'we', though I may not be the only one) ever actually hear about? When walking around college campus in or near the month of February, I see plenty of signs for Black History Month, but none for the others.

To be perfectly honest, I had no idea that March was Women's History Month, that May was Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, that September 15 to October 15 was Hispanic Heritage Month, or that November was American Indian Heritage Month.

The only one that seems to be popular is Black History Month. The only thing I knew that happened in October was that it was the month for Breast Cancer Awareness.

I am certainly glad you pointed this out to me, because it shows me how lacking my education system was in other departments of heritage months.

In the immortal words of Ice-Cube: CHICKITY CHECK YO SELF BEFORE YOU WRECK YO SELF.

YOU are the only one who doesn't hear more about it. I live in CA, and every May, there is a HUGE celebration in SF's Chinatown. The capitol also has a celebration and redecorates the interior of the capitol building with pictures of famous Asian Americans.

If your college doesn't put out enough advertisements, then that goes on to your universities' cultural clubs. Who knows? They are probably as ill-informed as you and most of America, including the Almighty Morgan Freeman, and don't know that these months exist.

I wouldn't take such a beef with this issue, but we all clearly have access to the internet here. I mean seriously, how hard is it to google 'Asian History Month'? Its not, yet people like you and others spout on without taking this half-second's worth of effort.

Works my last nerve yo.

[HMS Thunder Child]

Riviera de la Mancha

Ontological Empiricism

Annata Cannata

First of all, there are other history months- http://smithsonianeducation.org/heritage_month/
Second of all, the reason there are history months is because thats the only time their history will be taught. Despite what you learn in school there are other Black people that accomplished things besides Martin Luther King Jr. And do we even learn about any specific Native American people besides Pocahontas? The problem is that public school teaches about only one or two token non-white people and call it a day when there is so much more.

Question: If these months are dedicated to other parts of history, whether racial or gender, why is Black History Month the only one we (I suppose I am using this as a royal 'we', though I may not be the only one) ever actually hear about? When walking around college campus in or near the month of February, I see plenty of signs for Black History Month, but none for the others.

To be perfectly honest, I had no idea that March was Women's History Month, that May was Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, that September 15 to October 15 was Hispanic Heritage Month, or that November was American Indian Heritage Month.

The only one that seems to be popular is Black History Month. The only thing I knew that happened in October was that it was the month for Breast Cancer Awareness.

I am certainly glad you pointed this out to me, because it shows me how lacking my education system was in other departments of heritage months.

In the immortal words of Ice-Cube: CHICKITY CHECK YO SELF BEFORE YOU WRECK YO SELF.

YOU are the only one who doesn't hear more about it. I live in CA, and every May, there is a HUGE celebration in SF's Chinatown. The capitol also has a celebration and redecorates the interior of the capitol building with pictures of famous Asian Americans.

If your college doesn't put out enough advertisements, then that goes on to your universities' cultural clubs. Who knows? They are probably as ill-informed as you and most of America, including the Almighty Morgan Freeman, and don't know that these months exist.

I wouldn't take such a beef with this issue, but we all clearly have access to the internet here. I mean seriously, how hard is it to google 'Asian History Month'? Its not, yet people like you and others spout on without taking this half-second's worth of effort.

Works my last nerve yo.

[Skeptical]

Do you seriously expect white racists to bother to do any actual legwork?

[Knobist]

frozen_water

Jacque De Molay

Ontological Empiricism

Jacque De Molay

I disagree with Morgan Freeman.

That's nice, but I'm going to have to ask you to elaborate, being in the extended discussion and all.

Of course, I think that we need black history more than ever. I have witnessed a different lower set of expectations for myself in America because of my skin tone when compared to my friends of different backgrounds.

Do you honestly think a month is going to help that?

Yes, time dedicated to any issue helps.

[A Drunk Damsel]

considering it's the shortest month of the year I don't see how it's that big of a deal, mostly no one celebrates it anyway. also isn't march latino history month?

[Turgid Rhetoric]

Well God damn, I didn't realize I elected Morgan Freeman as my king.

[Robot Macai]

HMS Thunder Child

[Annoyed]

The rest of the year is designated to white, male history.

That's because white men have done most of the important things in history. They basically built Western civilization as we know it today, and given that this we live in a Western country, it, well, it makes sense that we focus on our own history.

[Robot Macai]

Ontological Empiricism

HMS Thunder Child

[Annoyed]

The rest of the year is designated to white, male history.

I'm glad you're annoyed sweetie. That really puts a puff in my petticoat, but why not actually contribute to the discussion at hand?

Why are no other months dedicated to other races in history?

Because we have to make the blacks feel good about themselves.

[Robot Macai]

HMS Thunder Child

Ontological Empiricism

HMS Thunder Child

[Annoyed]

The rest of the year is designated to white, male history.

I'm glad you're annoyed sweetie. That really puts a puff in my petticoat, but why not actually contribute to the discussion at hand?

Why are no other months dedicated to other races in history?

[Snide]

Don't flatter yourself. The tone markers are for reader convenience.

[Informative]

What do you suppose you are learning the rest of the time? If you are studying history and it excludes all perspectives except for straight, cis, white males, then it is straight, cis, white male history. Asking for a designated month is a bit much considering history classes generally exclude minority perspectives unless the course is geared towards them.

Given that straight, cis, white males did pretty much everything important, it would make sense that history would focus on them. Furthermore, history isn't so much about perspective as it is about recording facts, what happened.

[Robot Macai]

HMS Thunder Child

DynaSuarez Wrecks

HMS Thunder Child

Ontological Empiricism

HMS Thunder Child

[Annoyed]

The rest of the year is designated to white, male history.

I'm glad you're annoyed sweetie. That really puts a puff in my petticoat, but why not actually contribute to the discussion at hand?

Why are no other months dedicated to other races in history?

[Snide]

Don't flatter yourself. The tone markers are for reader convenience.

[Informative]

What do you suppose you are learning the rest of the time? If you are studying history and it excludes all perspectives except for straight, cis, white males, then it is straight, cis, white male history. Asking for a designated month is a bit much considering history classes generally exclude minority perspectives unless the course is geared towards them.

rolleyes The rest of the time, I was probably learning about whatever happened to be on the agenda at that time. I don't know about you, but none of my history teachers ever went out their way to deliberately avoid non-white cultures throughout American and U.S. history just because it wasn't February. In fact, February is the only month where teachers go out of their way to talk about something that wasn't originally on the agenda, which as far as I'm concerned, is a huge problem.

[Annoyed]

So your qualm is that it's not according to plan?

Well then fine, here's a suggestion, push for legitimate coverage of black history throughout the year. Not just the brief touching on a few black poets, the Tuskegee Airmen, and Martin Luther King Jr's superiority over Malcolm X.

Talk about lynchings. Talk about state sanctioned slavery up until the Second World War. Talk about the denial of GI benefits to black GIs. Talk about housing discrimination which exists to this day. Talk about white privilege. And so on.

That's not happening. White society won't allow it.

So what do you propose as an alternative?

Actually those things are already covered in modern history. I don't know what history classes you were taking, but they were in mine.

You know what the history classes I took didn't include? How African Kings sold their own people as slaves for muskets because they were too dumb to make their own.

[HMS Thunder Child]

Robot Macai

HMS Thunder Child

[Annoyed]

The rest of the year is designated to white, male history.

That's because white men have done most of the important things in history. They basically built Western civilization as we know it today, and given that this we live in a Western country, it, well, it makes sense that we focus on our own history.

[Annoyed/Snide]

And they'll let you know it, too, while destroying any evidence to the contrary and under-reporting or failing entirely to acknowledge the contributions of the people they routinely subjugated.

And if we're going to talk about who built the US, I'd say that white men can't really say s**t.

Beyond that, the US has a lot of unpleasant, to say the least, history that needs to be covered and doesn't. And, were the some of the farther right people to get their way, it wouldn't be covered at all because it "makes white people look bad."

[The Gay Science]

I think it would be more productive to work to get more cultural representation of minorities in general, rather than relegating them to one specific time period. I think the point made in the OP clip is essentially correct. I don't think isolating periods in which we're made to temporarily highlight minority achievements is especially empowering for those groups. I also don't think this is an issue isolated to black people. It applies to so many other minority groups, probably even more so. How much did you learn about the contributions and struggles of African Americans in school in comparison to those of latinos, Asians or the LGBT community? I think for most, it was likely bordering on comparatively over represented. I know it was for me.

[Robot Macai]

HMS Thunder Child

Robot Macai

HMS Thunder Child

[Annoyed]

The rest of the year is designated to white, male history.

That's because white men have done most of the important things in history. They basically built Western civilization as we know it today, and given that this we live in a Western country, it, well, it makes sense that we focus on our own history.

[Annoyed/Snide]

And they'll let you know it, too, while destroying any evidence to the contrary and under-reporting or failing entirely to acknowledge the contributions of the people they routinely subjugated.

HMS Thunder Child

And if we're going to talk about who built the US, I'd say that white men can't really say s**t.

Yeah? Why's that?

HMS Thunder Child

Beyond that, the US has a lot of unpleasant, to say the least, history that needs to be covered and doesn't. And, were the some of the farther right people to get their way, it wouldn't be covered at all because it "makes white people look bad."

Yeah, like what?

[HMS Thunder Child]

Robot Macai

HMS Thunder Child

DynaSuarez Wrecks

HMS Thunder Child

Ontological Empiricism

HMS Thunder Child

[Annoyed]

The rest of the year is designated to white, male history.

I'm glad you're annoyed sweetie. That really puts a puff in my petticoat, but why not actually contribute to the discussion at hand?

Why are no other months dedicated to other races in history?

[Snide]

Don't flatter yourself. The tone markers are for reader convenience.

[Informative]

What do you suppose you are learning the rest of the time? If you are studying history and it excludes all perspectives except for straight, cis, white males, then it is straight, cis, white male history. Asking for a designated month is a bit much considering history classes generally exclude minority perspectives unless the course is geared towards them.

rolleyes The rest of the time, I was probably learning about whatever happened to be on the agenda at that time. I don't know about you, but none of my history teachers ever went out their way to deliberately avoid non-white cultures throughout American and U.S. history just because it wasn't February. In fact, February is the only month where teachers go out of their way to talk about something that wasn't originally on the agenda, which as far as I'm concerned, is a huge problem.

[Annoyed]

So your qualm is that it's not according to plan?

Well then fine, here's a suggestion, push for legitimate coverage of black history throughout the year. Not just the brief touching on a few black poets, the Tuskegee Airmen, and Martin Luther King Jr's superiority over Malcolm X.

Talk about lynchings. Talk about state sanctioned slavery up until the Second World War. Talk about the denial of GI benefits to black GIs. Talk about housing discrimination which exists to this day. Talk about white privilege. And so on.

That's not happening. White society won't allow it.

So what do you propose as an alternative?

Actually those things are already covered in modern history. I don't know what history classes you were taking, but they were in mine.

You know what the history classes I took didn't include? How African Kings sold their own people as slaves for muskets because they were too dumb to make their own.

[Snide]

Probably because that never happened. What white slavery apologists, like yourself, you sack of s**t bigot, like to misconstrue is the fact that some tribal leaders sold prisoners of war to slavers in exchange for weaponry. Slavers who knew that it would just get them more slaves.

There's a reason that bullshit still floats around, and it's only partially because white America is largely racist. The other reason is because the education system provides a shitty partial version of the actual history. And when schools try and bring it up, white parents complain that their kids are being taught that white people were oppressive, slaving, colonizing savages. Truth is a real pain in the a**.

[Robot Macai]

HMS Thunder Child

Robot Macai

HMS Thunder Child

DynaSuarez Wrecks

HMS Thunder Child

[Snide]

Don't flatter yourself. The tone markers are for reader convenience.

[Informative]

What do you suppose you are learning the rest of the time? If you are studying history and it excludes all perspectives except for straight, cis, white males, then it is straight, cis, white male history. Asking for a designated month is a bit much considering history classes generally exclude minority perspectives unless the course is geared towards them.

rolleyes The rest of the time, I was probably learning about whatever happened to be on the agenda at that time. I don't know about you, but none of my history teachers ever went out their way to deliberately avoid non-white cultures throughout American and U.S. history just because it wasn't February. In fact, February is the only month where teachers go out of their way to talk about something that wasn't originally on the agenda, which as far as I'm concerned, is a huge problem.

[Annoyed]

So your qualm is that it's not according to plan?

Well then fine, here's a suggestion, push for legitimate coverage of black history throughout the year. Not just the brief touching on a few black poets, the Tuskegee Airmen, and Martin Luther King Jr's superiority over Malcolm X.

Talk about lynchings. Talk about state sanctioned slavery up until the Second World War. Talk about the denial of GI benefits to black GIs. Talk about housing discrimination which exists to this day. Talk about white privilege. And so on.

That's not happening. White society won't allow it.

So what do you propose as an alternative?

Actually those things are already covered in modern history. I don't know what history classes you were taking, but they were in mine.

You know what the history classes I took didn't include? How African Kings sold their own people as slaves for muskets because they were too dumb to make their own.

[Snide]

Probably because that never happened. What white slavery apologists, like yourself, you sack of s**t bigot, like to misconstrue is the fact that some tribal leaders sold prisoners of war to slavers in exchange for weaponry. Slavers who knew that it would just get them more slaves.

There's a reason that bullshit still floats around, and it's only partially because white America is largely racist. The other reason is because the education system provides a shitty partial version of the actual history. And when schools try and bring it up, white parents complain that their kids are being taught that white people were oppressive, slaving, colonizing savages. Truth is a real pain in the a**.

Truth is a real pain in the a**. Having any grasp of it makes you a "sack of s**t bigot." You don't even deny that Africans were selling these people into slavery, making them part of the whole ordeal. Blacks are as much at fault for slavery as whites, full stop, and it's a fact you're unwilling to face because you couldn't render yourself a sack of s**t.

[HMS Thunder Child]

Robot Macai

HMS Thunder Child

Robot Macai

HMS Thunder Child

[Annoyed]

The rest of the year is designated to white, male history.

That's because white men have done most of the important things in history. They basically built Western civilization as we know it today, and given that this we live in a Western country, it, well, it makes sense that we focus on our own history.

[Annoyed/Snide]

And they'll let you know it, too, while destroying any evidence to the contrary and under-reporting or failing entirely to acknowledge the contributions of the people they routinely subjugated.

HMS Thunder Child

And if we're going to talk about who built the US, I'd say that white men can't really say s**t.

Yeah? Why's that?

HMS Thunder Child

Beyond that, the US has a lot of unpleasant, to say the least, history that needs to be covered and doesn't. And, were the some of the farther right people to get their way, it wouldn't be covered at all because it "makes white people look bad."

Yeah, like what?

[Annoyed]

Because much of the US' early wealth was derivative entirely from black slave labor and non-white migrant labor. If not for slavery, the US would never have grown into what it is today.

Like what? The motions from Tea Party organizations to remove slavery from texts because it makes the Founders look bad? Or do you mean what makes white people look bad? Because that's a really easy question for you to figure out by giving a rough glance over Wikipedia's page on genocide. And that's just for the ridiculously obvious examples.