Racist History Month is coming. Many of you call it February. Racists. Privilegests.
I am being reminded of this on a regular basis every day. “Are we going to study Black History in Black History Month?” I have had students ask me that question right after we watched a video about Harriet Tubman. How can this be? Because they are not interested in learning about the history of black people in the United States. What they want is to get out of work that involves learning something new and go back to the three or four things they know. For the average student of any color today Black History is confined to Martin Luther King, Jr, Rosa Parks and slavery. If you get beyond that you are off the reservation.
These kids think the only slaves that have ever existed were black people who were kidnaped from Africa by white people. They are ignorant of the reality of slavery in every culture through history. They deny that black people sold their ancestors to the white traders. They refuse to listen when you tell them that there were black people in Louisiana who owned plantations and black slaves. In a nutshell it isn’t about learning history. It is about sticking in a thumb, pulling out a plumb and saying, “Oh, what a good boy am I.”
It fascinates me that we need a month to “celebrate” black history when we can cover the Irish with St. Patrick’s Day, the Mexicans with Cinco de Mayo and have nothing to remember the French, Germans, Croatians, Serbians, Persians, etc.
It all starts in your public schools on February 1. I am waiting for someone to complain that they picked the shortest month. It must be racist.
homo unius libri
Kind of a shame to limit the study to just those few. Seems like a good opportunity to celebrate successful black entrepreneurs, businessmen/women, and talented artists.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with those people is that they tend to have traditional values. When we have our annual ritual assembly the vast majority of faces on the screen are athletes and entertainers with a few "civil rights" activists thrown in. I don't think I have ever seen a picture of
DeleteClarence Thomas or Thomas Sowell.
Grace and peace.
All the more sad; kids aren't getting a view of whom they can emulate to make best use of their potential. So few can really make it as athletes and entertainers.
ReplyDeleteI think of it as the real problem of racism and it comes from the left. In their hearts they don't believe that certain minorities are capable of high achievement so they ignore or explain away the surgeons and scientists that break the mold.
DeleteGrace and peace