Black History Month -- who they ought to be celebrating

Renew America ^ | 3 Feb 2010 | Tim Dunkin

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

As you most likely know, February is Black History month. And as you also most likely know, the treatment which this will receive from both black Americans and white leftists will be completely misdirected and wasteful in the good which could be accomplished. Black History month, as with pretty much everything else that makes up the face of black American public participation, has become the province of race-baiting no-goods like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and their cadre of local emulators in every major city across America. Instead of taking the opportunity to celebrate the great strides that have been made by blacks in America, this month becomes just another excuse to crank up the grievance machine, extort money and guilt from gullible whites, and continue to hold black Americans back from being able to enjoy the fruits of the sacrifices made by their forefathers.

I, for one, think this is a shame. Instead of this month being an excuse to foment racial discord and to make lacks comfortable with submitting to self-imposed limitations, real contributions and real sacrifices ought to be recognized. This is why I have chosen to devote this article to celebrating Black History month by pointing the reader to the life and example of someone who black Americans would do well to imitate — Booker T. Washington....

[TSgt]

I am a product of the Cincinnati Public Schools and had black history crammed down my throat from kindergarten through my senior year. It went beyond February but February was the worst. I recall being taught that white people boarded boats, sailed to Africa and then captured Africans with big nets like you would capture butterflies.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t recognize achievements of black Americans or not study slavery or the civil rights movement. It should be covered under the course of American history studies like everything else.

A separate month separates us. We are all Americans and this is just part of American history.

Veterans don’t even get a full month and they are the most deserved of such a thing.

[henkster]

A very good read on this subject is “Rediscovering Black Conservatism” by Lee H. Walker, a senior fellow with the Heartland Institute. Walker makes exactly the same point about Booker T. Washington. Washington preached economic freedom from slavery and Jim Crow. He knew that without education, skill, hard work and the other conservative values we cherish, there could be no independent underpinning for black Americans to realize the American Dream.

However, marxists hijacked the black movement, starting with W.E.B. DuBois, in the early 20th Century. They preached (irony intended) that blacks should pursue political “freedom” through government intervention and ignored economic freedom through personal effort and accountability. Washington knew that by relying on government for political “freedom” without an economic base, DuBois was only selling his people into a new and different kind of slavery.

Washington was far more perceptive than people give him credit and in the end, he was right. DuBois’ successors have become the foremen on the new government plantation, lording over the welfare slavery of their institutionally ignorant people.

[Iron Munro]

Can’t wait for July (White History Month)

[MrB]

Time for some non-PC facts:

Every historical culture/civilization has had slaves.

Blacks captured and sold other blacks in Africa.

White Christians spurred and completed the movement to make slavery unacceptable worldwide.

[MrB]

Somehow the left’s arguments are not consistent - go figure.

Where is White History Month? “All the other months”
Where is the White Congressional Caucus? “All the rest of Congress”
Where is the United White College Fund? “All the rest of the scholarships”

But somehow, that doesn’t work the other way, when there’s a cross on a hill, all the other hills aren’t somehow secular,
and when there’s a nativity scene on public property, all the other parks with no nativity scene don’t count for the atheists.

[MsLady]

Here’s Morgan Freeman on black history month.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FO214IFRW1M
I’ve always loved him as an actor, his movies are awesome. Now I have another reason to love him.

[Cacique]

btt