Black History Month – Not So Special?
– By Ed Kociela –
I know I am paddling in turbid waters, but I am not convinced yet that the designation of February as Black History Month is such a great idea.
I mean, we are duty-bound, as keepers of the record, to carry the stories of Black heritage, courage, culture, and achievement forward. We are also duty bound, as humans, to do so in an atmosphere of equality and inclusion. What I fear has happened, however, is that we keep our Black History Month decorations wrapped up and stored in the closet next to our Christmas decorations and only bring them out once a year when we celebrate Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and, maybe a handful of other icons who were integral not just to African-American culture, but culture period.
I realize that in a perfect world we would have no need to segregate such honors and achievements. I also realize that this is not a perfect world. Still, I cannot help but feel that these special months we create, for whatever reasons, are a bit of an insult. The African-American culture and history are not inferior and should not be relegated to secondary status that needs to be propped up with a “special” month.
There are a lot of people out there who I call the “Do-Gooders” who have good, sincere hearts, who see the inequality of racism and the systemic bias that permeates the fabric of our society, who are the true believers. These special month designations are, I am sure, the fruit of their kindness and desire to level the playing field.
But, in so doing, the people, places, and issues they hope to highlight get shoved to a lower tier.
And in that is the rub.
The strength of those who make a stand, who strive to make a real difference, who believe in humanity as a whole rather than the segmented cultural dysplasia of separatism, or, non-inclusion as a result of the differences of our skin should be honored collectively, regardless of skin color.
The list of these specially designated months is long and often intriguing. Besides February being designated as Black History Month, it is also National Bird-Feeding Month. March is Women’s History Month but it is also national Mustache Month. April is not only National Child Abuse Prevention Month but also Confederate History Month.
It takes the steam out of it all, doesn’t it? It lessens the impact of something intended to do so much good and places it into ho-hum status. I mean, really, Confederate History Month? The only imagery I see there are traitorous rebels and cowardly men in white sheets with pointy hoods. Makes me happy there is no Sicilian History Month to slap next to it.
So, in reality, it is like playing with a handicap, boosting the profile and worthiness of black history artificially when it needs no such thing.
I also have grave concerns about how black history accounts have been scrubbed. To those of us of a certain age, for example, we know all about how the FBI and various local police organizations infiltrated and urged organizations such as the Black Panthers into acts of violence. The Panthers, in fact, were organized to protect the Black communities from police violence and to feed hungry children. Granted, they were not Boy Scouts by any means, but they were provoked into a violent direction by FBI infiltrators under the orders of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, who, by the way, was also on the tail of John Lennon, who he looked to bounce from American shores because of his political views. It was not a pleasant time to be in the United States, especially if you leaned even the least to the liberal side.
And, as we all know, the winners get to write history, so you are unlikely to hear a straight-arrow treatise on the Panthers, activism, or the times. The revisionist history is more accommodating and less stressful for many.
There was then, as now, a reluctance to understand the complexities of racism, the subtleties and nuance of words and actions that wittingly or not can raise the temperature of racial tensions.
So we get the varnished and polished version highlighting the certifiable heroes like Parks, Tubman, and King and brushing past the others – from Malcolm X to Bobby Seale. Truth is, it took decades for Muhammad Ali to get the positive reflection he so richly deserved as a man of truth and honor with many adamant up to his dying day in addressing him by his slave name of Cassius Clay.
The whole business of February being designated as Black History Month comes down to the fact that it has a hollow ring of insincerity.
In fact, it wasn’t until 14 years after the federal government designated Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday as a national, paid holiday that all 50 states signed on.
The last five states to get on board were Arizona in 1990, New Hampshire in 1999, and Virginia, South Carolina, and Utah in 2000. Utah, by the way, added insult to injury by opening its legislative session for years on MLK Day, even after it was designated as a national holiday.
The overarching question is have we come very far since then?
Has observance of King’s birthday and Black History Month done much to alleviate the stress between the races?
Has it diminished the racism that has scarred the nation since its inception?
Not as long as we have black men and women being killed in the streets by police poisoned with a systemic racial bias and over-amped on some G.I. Joe Wannabe thing.
Not as long as we have names Michael Brown, George Floyd, Daunte Wright, Tyre Nichols, and so many others showing up in the obituary columns.
Black History Month?
It may have sounded like a good idea at the time, but it has accomplished nothing.
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