Every February, Americans celebrate Black History Month. For
some people, this means acknowledging the past. For others, it
means exploiting racial issues for personal gain. For the United
States as a whole, the month helps foster division and racial
tension.
But before Black History Month can be evaluated in its modern
form, it is important to give historical context to its
origins.
Throughout much of the 20th century, a fervent force of racism
had a stranglehold on the United States. Blacks were harassed,
discriminated against, and treated unjustly. Their history was
scarcely recorded and their successes were constantly undermined by
American textbooks, teachers and politicians. Where blacks deserved
credit, whites would steal it from them.
It was in response to this active and institutionalized form of
racism that in 1926, Dr. Carter G. Woodson founded Negro History
Week. The week’s purpose was to spread knowledge about the
character, progress and history of the black people. In 1976, Negro
History Week was expanded to Black History Month. Its goal remained
the same: to combat racism and to call attention to the rich
history of black people.
In the present, however, the United States has no use for Black
History Month. Today, the United States no longer has laws or
institutions that are stacked against blacks. The vast majority of
Americans condemn racism. The media is an effective watchdog over
society.
The changing American culture has also brought about a change in
our understanding of black history and culture. Slavery is
acknowledged and reprimanded in every history textbook. Only the
ignorant have never heard of Kofi Annan, Nelson Mandela or the
Civil Rights Movement.
But there are those, nonetheless, who seem to claim that black
history is even now covered up, revised or ignored.
“It’s extremely important that we keep the
focus,” said Molefi Kete Asante, chairman of African American
studies at Temple University in an interview with CNN. “In
the future, you should be able to pick up a textbook and read that
Benjamin Banneker, an African American mathematician from Maryland,
made the first clock in North America.”
So it is essential to ask: Why are Banneker and his kin left out
of American textbooks? Is there a conscious, or even subconscious,
effort to deny the achievement of blacks in U.S. history? The
answer is, most obviously: No.
The reason Banneker, for example, is unmentioned in the standard
history textbook is not because he was black, but to put it
frankly, because nobody cares. White scientists Percy L. Spencer
(inventor of the microwave oven) and C. L. Sholes (inventor of the
first commercial “Type-Writer” and the QWERTY keyboard)
are neglected as well. The issue is relevance, not race.
On the other hand, blacks who have contributed extensively to
U.S. history ““ Booker T. Washington, Jackie Robinson and
countless others ““ are always discussed in history
textbooks.
Yet it is not enough to say Black History Month is no longer
useful to understanding the past. It is also harmful in judging the
present.
Since institutionalized racism broke down some decades ago, the
histories of blacks and whites have merged. In the United States,
different races no longer experience significantly different
treatment. Hence, the history of the American people can no longer
be studied through race. No American ““ whether he is black or
white, Muslim or Christian, conservative or liberal ““ is
exempt from the day-to-day struggles of the human race. Making
money, sustaining a family, triumphing over tragedy ““ these
are issues common to every American.
But politicians and pundits have found a new use for Black
History Month. They have exploited the guilt that many whites have
over slavery and the inferiority complex many blacks have developed
due to their history. They use Black History Month to flaunt their
civil rights records and to gather support for divisive ideas like
affirmative action and slave reparations.
Black History Month no longer copes with a divide in the
American population as it once did. Instead, Black History Month
creates a new divide.
The United States of America cannot choose when to acknowledge
history and when to ignore it. We must acknowledge black, white,
brown history every day of the year. Martin Luther King
wasn’t a hero in February alone; the music of Ray Charles
does not loose its brilliance in June; and “The Oprah Winfrey
Show” isn’t cancelled on March 1. The history of blacks
is now the history of the Americans.
Black History Month was important 30 years ago. Since then, it
has slowly lost its relevance and provided less and less of a
benefit to society. Today, Black History Month is divisive,
dangerous and simply anti-American.
At the moment, the United States boasts a variety of diversity
celebrations. We have Women’s History Month, National
Hispanic Heritage Month and many others. But unless we eliminate
these spurious political bargaining chips, we will never be able to
celebrate what deserves celebration most: not our diversity, but
our unity ““ as humans, and as Americans.
Hovannisian is a first-year history and philosophy student.
E-mail him at ghovannisian@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to
viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.