Posted on 02/29/2012 8:39:22 AM PST by combat_boots
Why Black History Month? If a people has a past worth learning about, they also must have a future worth caring about.
Irvine, CA - When I was a child, Black History Month, which since 1976 has been celebrated in February each year in the United States, used to mean something.
Perhaps it was because I lived in the New York Metropolitan area in the still race-conscious 1970s and 1980s, but during February it was hard not to get at least a hint of an education about African American history and its contribution to the larger American mosaic, whether it was school activities or public service spots on television, or surrounding the growing chorus of voices to make Martin Luther King, Jr's birthday a national holiday.
True, February is the shortest month of the year; but contrary to urban legend that's not why it was chosen as Black History Month. Instead, it was because the birthdays of President Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, perhaps the two most important figures before Martin Luther King in the quest for black freedom in the United States, both occurred in mid-February.
There were plenty of reasons to criticise the "ghettoising" of black American history into one short month. But the idea at least had the virtue of getting kids to think about the fact that there was such a thing as a specifically African American narrative within the larger, and largely white, version of American history we were being taught in school. And if you grew up in an urban, significantly black cultural milieu, the focus on history - that is, on black people having a past worth learning about - added a bit of extra gravitas to the increasing dominance of African American artistic production within American culture as a whole.
(Excerpt) Read more at aljazeera.com ...
Yeah. Just a little local link.
To the most listened to radio station in the largest market in the country. The reason I know about it is that I hear this cr@p every morning while I'm shaving.
You could also read bilge like this from AT&T or this from GM.
Keep me posted when you see similar nonsense about Jewish History Month.
ML/NJ
Pander is correct.
MLK plagiarized his dissertation, was an adulterer and hired prostitutes. Politicians in Washington decided he should be honored instead of George Washington.
If that is not pandering, what is?
Then maybe you should try a different radio station.
If you want Jewish American Heritage Month to get similar notice DO IT. This doesn’t happen on accident, this happens because people put work into it. Get your favorite synagog & Jewish community center & kosher deli to start a festival, introduce people to the wonderful world of kosher pastrami. We have a huge Greek festival every year in Tucson, not because we have a lot of Greeks but because the Greeks we do have are willing to put forth the work to make it happen. So go ahead and make it happen, if you took half the time you’re spending complaining about BHM and put it into making JAHM an event it would already be one.
There has been a little thing kicking around the last few years in Virginia called “The Slavery Museum”.
It is undergoing bankruptcy and reorganization again.
Only problem is they are not allowed to depict or mention slaves being slaves etc.
Sorry but isn’t that tantamount to having a Navy Museum and not being able to mention or show the fact that humans actually lived aboard Navy ships in bad conditions?
You said it didn't happen at all.
I, for one, wouldn't want any notice of a stupid "Jewish History Month." I would find it condescending and demeaning.
maybe you should try a different radio station.
I listen to WINS in the morning because it at least gives the weather every few minutes. I used to listen to WCBS, but when they continued to celebrate Dan Rather after he was caught red-handed committing fraud, I switched. Since then, all these stations are now owned by the same corporation, but WINS is the only one that doesn't preempt its regular news (such as it is) schedule for meaningless baseball and/or basketball games. So if it's okay with you, I'll keep listening.
ML/NJ
It’s not happening as much as some whiners want to think. It certainly is the “biggest” of the ethnic commemorative months, but it’s not that big. Really not one mention on History Channel at all, not the network or the website. The freaking History Channel which used to totally obsess on BHM hasn’t even mentioned it.
Well if you don’t want your month (which is May by the way) recognized then why are you even complaining?
Get the weather off the web, the night before. That’s how I get it. If you really MUST get it on the radio I’m sure there’s half a dozen other station in the NYC area that give it regularly. If you don’t like the content but keep listening that’s YOUR fault. I don’t listen to any radio station at all, because I have better content than they do.
Because I find Black History Month to be pure pandering. They don't even consider the blacks that are most deserving of a spotlight because I guess they are all "Toms."
We really don't need to pretending that there are alternate histories. Yes, there can be different emphasis and/or focus, but anyone who is teaching Maya Angelou as literature needs to be removed. We need to be teaching real American History and real English Literature to a population now almost completely ignorant of it.
ML/NJ
Of course it’s pandering, ALL the commemorative days weeks and months are pandering. Mothers Day? Pandering. Fathers Day? Pandering. Hurricane Preparedness Week? Pandering. Fire Prevention Month? Pandering. That’s the whole point of these things, to pander to some group the sitting president want to vote for him by giving them the false impression he cares about them on an individual level. They’re all stupid, none of them are really more stupid than the rest, some of them can be useful for getting cheap food though so it’s good to know when they are (like Jan 23 is National Pie Day, good day to hit your favorite pie place).
And the bad news is Maya Angelou would get taught as literature even without BHM. All the wrong people (the literati) love her crap. But that’s really a whole other ball of spew.
Maybe you're stupid equating Black History Month with Mother's Day?
Maybe when your mother is young, it seems stupid but when she's in her 80s like my mom is, maybe it will be cause for one more plane trip to go spend some time with her. It is for me.
ML/NJ
So you can’t be nice to your mom on days not Mother’s Day? Meanwhile it became so commercialized that the woman whose push made it happen got tired of it. And it spawned all the other days, and weeks, and months. It created the commemoration industry. We probably wouldn’t even have BHM if there hadn’t been Mother’s Day. So yeah they’re equated alright.
No, not at all, unless you start lobbying for special privileges.
So what are you, a libtard troll or a flaming RINO?
None of the above. What I am is smart enough to pay attention to the world and see what’s actually happening.
Hey it’s March 1, BHM is over happy:
Women’s History Month
Irish American Heritage Month
Greek American Heritage Month
Brain Injury Awareness Month
Essential Tremor Awareness Month
Pig Day
Self Injury Awareness Day AND Month
And many many others. Welcome to reality where EVERY day/ week/ month is Pander to Somebody Day/ Week/ Month.
Agree thry fail to see just how backwards they are,most of the act like mad dogs.
Revenge?
Revenge for what?
If those asses ever went to Africa, they would be thankful for being here.
As the expression goes “I am glad my forefathers were such shitty athletes, that is why I am here and not in Africa”
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