Remove Black History Month

Why do we have an entire month dedicated to Black People? Isn't America about being equals? What about the Spanish, chineeze, germans, japanese, etc. Why don't these races get celebrated? While I'm at it...Christians, Jews, Muslims, etc....Straights, gays, lesbians, etc(Not saying opinion, just being fair).

I say we change Black History Month to "American Month". A month to celebrate the history for everyone. Let's hear some amazing stories(not just hopping over a fence ) on what people went through to get to America.

If anyone calls me racist, then aren't you being one by treating one race over another? No race, religion, etc should be considered better then another.


Opinions, especially from the Black(you don't mind being called Black, right?) ZU members.

Every month is White Christian American month already.

Because we didn't enslave the other races? Teaching black history is supposed to teach us about equality that will hopefully spread to other races. Black History Month is already about equality. It just focuses on one people, but isn't meant to exclude all others.

And it's Wealthy White Male Christian Months. Or maybe add some other adjectives.

It's a way for America saying "I'm sorry" for the, y'know, whole "slavery" thing that happened a while ago.

I agree.

Not with what the OP was saying because it came off as terribly racist and inconsiderate. But I do agree that there shouldn't be a Black History Month because that in and of itself seems like it separates blacks from the rest. It also seems degrading to whittle down so much culture, history, and influences into one single month. We shouldn't need a month to realize that black people are people, humans, who have, as a group, had an incredible impact on the world and America and that their history is intertwined with America's. Their history is America's history.

They don't need a month and neither does any other group. Giving everyone a month solves nothing, we need to work on educating people into understanding a basic concept - not through some petty, crappy attempt at rallying the states to understand their plight and influence. It seems forced. We should know. Black history month - it just sounds terrible to me. Their history is history. Period.

The fact that there is a month dedicated to the history of black people in the United States does not lessen the rights or equality of other races, so I don't see a problem.

I don't like the idea of Black History month, because it can imply that we only need to focus on the good the African people have done to our society that month, when in reality, we should always think of the good some people have done to strengthen and improve our society.

"Black history is American history."

For me, Black History Month seems detrimental when it comes to achieving equality. When I look at an African American, I want to look at him/her as just another person. But when I'm reminded over and over and over about our past that I personally had nothing to do with and am given a guilt trip I do not deserve, instead of viewing my brothers as equals and not caring what the color of their skin is, it seems that it's being promoted that we treat them special because of what happened way back when.

And treating someone special just because our bad past, no matter how horrible it was, is not treating someone equally.

Don't get me wrong, I love African Americans just as much as anyone else. But I don't want to think of them as African Americans. But Americans. Stuff like Black History Month, I feel, is like rubbing salt in a wound that has long since healed. I hope I don't come across sounding like a douche by saying this but I want to look at anyone as my brother and not have it suggested that I have to treat them special to make up for it, as if I myself had been a racist. I don't want to have to feel bad every time I look at an African American because people in the past were jerks to their fathers. I just want to look at them and just...look at them. You know? It's like we haven't moved on.

It's a way for America saying "I'm sorry" for the, y'know, whole "slavery" thing that happened a while ago.

How many slaves are alive today?

What about the Indians...we were very mean to them, enslaved them, and killed them. Where's there month? Go back in history enough and you'll have slaves of every kind. What about the Jews, not enslaved here but they had to go through a lot!

All Black History month does is make them have attitude towards us. I get really annoyed when someone says "It's because I'm Black". We said we were sorry, but it happened long ago.
Let's drop it and make peace!

Originally Posted by KingOfHeart

How many slaves are alive today?

What about the Indians...we were very mean to them, enslaved them, and killed them. Where's there month?

We give them free health care. At least where I live.

It's not out of some sense of guilt, it's because many people don't know about the history of black people. This is for a few reasons, but a big one is the systematic suppression of their culture for centuries.

Are you seriously offended by acknowledging that black people had a large role on history that is often ignored?

I think the whole purpose of Black History month is for people to be educated about what African Americans did for this country.
At my old school, we literally skipped right over Black History month. Didn't learn about anything involving civil rights or the history behind it.
So, I don't really think we should remove it.

I don't know if I'd say to just get rid of it. We have a lot of historical holidays where we celebrate important events and possibly think about them and how they apply to us.

Truth be told, I never liked Black History Month and I AM Black. ( Need proof? I send a display pic on my profile).

But I never liked it, never really knew why. But did got to an extremely bigoted elementary school that completely tried to brainwash us with the "Black pride, Our struggles, etc" BS that I just got sicked of it entirely.

But at the same time, a lot of the good things that's happened in America over the last century were because of Black people, so I don't think there should just be one month designated to them, but we should still recognize the good things they did~

At my school, we don't have white, black, Jewish, Christian or Islam history. We just have history. There shouldn't be a "Black History Month". Do we have a "Native History Month", do the Spanish have a "Aztec History Month"? Nope.

I don't go to public school now. I did and it was horrible, all of the history was dumbed down to say "America is the greatest country in the world, we never did anything wrong". At my current school I have a badass history teacher that doesn't dumb down anything at all. He leaves it as is, removing none of the bloody or racist parts.

Originally Posted by John

It's not out of some sense of guilt, it's because many people don't know about the history of black people.

That seems to me more of an issue for the education system to handle. And if it isn't handling it, then the solution is to fix the education system. You're really just promoting a less-than satisfactory replacement if that is the only reason.

February is Black History Month. I just found out today, on the second last day of the month, that it is BHM. Talk about ineffectual.

Black History month is counter-productive. Labeling one month "Black" history month separates that race from other races. Separating it with the "black" label implies that it is less than, more than, or just different. Remember "separate but equal"? Didn't work. Neither does this, even if there were good intentions behind giving black people their own month.

Why aren't all the white holidays labeled "white" history day or whatever? That's because being white (and male and straight) is the "standard." Black History month only makes this more true. If everyone wants to be seen as equals, then remove the labels for EVERYONE or give everyone labels so its fair (that including labeling white people as white). Personally, I think a world without labels would be more ideal.

Originally Posted by John

It's not out of some sense of guilt, it's because many people don't know about the history of black people. This is for a few reasons, but a big one is the systematic suppression of their culture for centuries.

In their defense the people who are unaware of said history are usually unaware of white history as well.

Originally Posted by John

Are you seriously offended by acknowledging that black people had a large role on history that is often ignored?

Allow me to answer that with a question.

Are you implying that black history needs a dedicated month rather than integration into our standard history curriculum? I'm of the opinion that simply arbitrarily demarcating February as Black History Happy Time Yay is a lot less effective than acknowledging that black history is a huge part of American (and world) history officially.

Originally Posted by John

Are you seriously offended by acknowledging that black people had a large role on history that is often ignored?

If this is aimed at me, I'll ask this:

Why do you ask me questions from out of the blue regarding things that I in no way meant to imply?

Black History Month does not offend me. The unnecessary guilt trips do. I do not appreciate having to look at African Americans differently than anyone else, but Black History Month paints targets on their backs, regardless of the intention.

If I myself were African American, I'd hate this month because people would probably be looking at me differently instead of just plain old me.





Also, I often forget that I'm a white guy, because really, it's irrelevant. Have we not progressed to the stage to where the color of our skin doesn't matter? A person's a person. Why can't we just leave it at that?