What exactly is different about Black History month than any other month?

[Falsedawn]

I dig Morgan Freeman’s perspective on the matter.

Malcolm X's is better.

 

[HereticBD]

Are highschool kids learning a bit more about Black America and or Africa in history class?

I haven't read the thread, but essentially this. Oh', and some networks highlight prominent black figures, and tell you that, yes, even black people can accomplish stuff, like it's the Special Olympics of history.

It's all rather pointless, and I'm surprised that more black people don't find it a little patronizing and offensive, like Morgan Freeman does.

 

[BearGrounds]

I haven't read the thread, but essentially this. Oh', and some networks highlight prominent black figures, and tell you that, yes, even black people can accomplish stuff, like it's the Special Olympics of history.

It's all rather pointless, and I'm surprised that more black people don't find it a little patronizing and offensive, like Morgan Freeman does.

Stacey Dash (one of Earth's finest female specimens of all time) made similar comments, and was heavily criticized for it.

 

[KantoTerror]

Coming up next...Gay History month & Female history month or herpes victim history month...etc etc...metoo history month guess who won't have a history month?

 

[Mark Cutting]

I can dig celebrating MJ.

I'd sooner have a Miles Davis month.

Millennials be scratching their thick craniums, "Who's Miles Davis?"

Millennials should just be ground into taco meat for hipsters.

 

[Mark Cutting]

Yes, add to that Nat King Cole, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, and Diana Ross.

And....

 

[Mark Cutting]

In my opinion, jazz by itself is reason enough to celebrate black history month.

It's a uniquely American music, it's complicated, broad and inclusive, takes a lot of skill, and it's really down to black coolness that it was ever a popular musical form.
Black coolness, and white people like Hefner telling white people it was good stuff.
A lot of people bought Birth of the Cool because Playboy said it was great without ever listening and hearing it. They just played it as background party music

I hate jazz, but definitely recognize the talent it takes.

 

[Mark Cutting]

Stacey Dash (one of Earth's finest female specimens of all time) made similar comments, and was heavily criticized for it.

She is stunningly attractive. Boooiiinnnggggg

 

[JadeOwl]

Schools cover more black history. I think media makes something of an effort to include more historical references. I just wiki'd the subject, pretty interesting to know when and why it originated. After reading it, I'm assume that outside of educational settings, most places probably don't do anything because it's not relevant to their tasks.

While this is a good start, I think it should have been a temporary measure until the folks in the US got their shit together and did something about the the really shitty way you people approach the teaching of history to children over there.

Black history month would be unnecessary if you properly covered the history and contributions of African Americans in the regular history classes.

Also, as far as I can tell, you hardly cover anything about the pre-Columbian period, i.e. most of your country's history.

 

[n...not crazy]

It's generally pretty cold during black history month. 0-10 degrees every night the past few. Wear a thick jacket!

 

[MicroBrew]

Essentially black history month is about patronising black Americans who are so insecure and narcissistic that they need to be told they are special every 5 minutes.

Can you imagine some guy in Nigeria being told that this a special month for his history, it probably confuses the fuck out of them. Why this month? Why only one month? Who the fuck are these people I've never heard of?

American culture is fundamentally narcissistic and this is just the black flavor of this, I'm not letting white people off the hook here, we do the same shit. Americans see the rest of the world through their racial lense and don't realise shit is a lot more complicated than that. There's no such thing as 'black history' in Africa. In fact even the concept of 'black people' is fairly new to them with the vast majority of people identifying far more with tribal and ethnic identities than racial ones. Black brotherhood is a myth dreamed up by delusional afrocentrists, the black version of the Italian Americans who would be laughed at in Italy for claiming to be natives.

Americans need to get over themselves and stop infecting the rest of the world with their egotism tbh.

Americans aren't trying to impose a Black History month outside of America, so I have no idea what your last sentence is supposed to mean.

As has been mentioned, Black History month is an academic endeavor for schools, because for most of American history, the Black experience (outside of slavery and segregation) has been ignored. In the same way that Native American history has been largely ignored, except when they interacted with Whites in a big way. American history and every month has always been about the mainstream, i.e. White history.

 

[MicroBrew]

I haven't read the thread, but essentially this. Oh', and some networks highlight prominent black figures, and tell you that, yes, even black people can accomplish stuff, like it's the Special Olympics of history.

It's all rather pointless, and I'm surprised that more black people don't find it a little patronizing and offensive, like Morgan Freeman does.

It sounds like educators, and those few instances where TV mentions some historical Black figure, is analogous to teaching about the varied non White cultures, in addition to European (Greek, Roman,English etc..) culture. Typically highschool and college history classes focus on European culture overwhelmingly or solely. I remember when I was in HS (here), we only learned about Greece and Rome. But when I was living in Arabia, we learned quite a bit about Ancient Egypt, and a lot about England's history. The instructor was English. The Euros and Brits are more inclusive in teaching history, but that has a lot to do with their history of colonialism.

 

[panamaican]

While this is a good start, I think it should have been a temporary measure until the folks in the US got their shit together and did something about the the really shitty way you people approach the teaching of history to children over there.

Black history month would be unnecessary if you properly covered the history and contributions of African Americans in the regular history classes.

Also, as far as I can tell, you hardly cover anything about the pre-Columbian period, i.e. most of your country's history.

No argument here. The historical contributions of African Americans should be properly integrated into American history lessons. Their exclusion from general history teachings reinforces the perception that they aren't really part of this America. Hopefully that continues to improve.

Interestingly, the school I'm planning to send my son to spends 10 weeks on black history. I didn't even learn that until after I selected it. It's surprisingly pleasant. Although I've seen that plenty of elite college prep schools are taking a more aggressive approach to integrating diverse student backgrounds into their student population and their curriculums. I would have thought those places would lag public schools but it looks like they're actually ahead of them there.

 

[MicroBrew]

While this is a good start, I think it should have been a temporary measure until the folks in the US got their shit together and did something about the the really shitty way you people approach the teaching of history to children over there.

Black history month would be unnecessary if you properly covered the history and contributions of African Americans in the regular history classes.

Also, as far as I can tell, you hardly cover anything about the pre-Columbian period, i.e. most of your country's history.

See, that's the thing: the folks angry at the very concept of a Black History month paint it as some sort of special favor to Blacks, when in fact all it attempts to do is attempt to remedy the lopsided teaching of history that has been the norm in American schools.

 

[redwire]

Did you know: They have Black History Month in Canada!

Near as I can see, the curriculum involves telling the kids "It's Black History Month eh?".

 

[OverCoronavirus Pressure]

Black people deserve a month just for how many times they've changed the face of popular music and set new trends, most of which have added positively to music.

 

[HereticBD]

Did you know: They have Black History Month in Canada!

Near as I can see, the curriculum involves telling the kids "It's Black History Month eh?".

Underground railroad, brah. That's what we mostly learned about during BHM.

 

[Cake4Breakfast]

Serious question here: what is different about Black History month than any other month?

The only thing I noticed was YouTube having a Black History month logo next to the Youtube logo. I haven't noticed anything different about public television. Not noticed politicians doing or saying anything different. Local newspaper seems the same as always.

So could folks list what exactly is different ?
Are highschool kids learning a bit more about Black America and or Africa in history class?

"But the frequent, and often valid, critique of Black History Month is that it encourages a tokenist approach to African American culture, leading everyone from national leaders to elementary-school teachers to recite a catechism of well-known figures, producing both shallow engagement and privileging a passé Great Man (and Woman) theory of history. Hardly any politician is immune to this; faced with the necessity of holding an event to mark the month, they too recite the list."

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/02/frederick-douglass-trump/515292/

 

[Fawlty]

Jesus this country has a lot of black anxiety. Just.fucking.relax.

 

[MicroBrew]

"But the frequent, and often valid, critique of Black History Month is that it encourages a tokenist approach to African American culture, leading everyone from national leaders to elementary-school teachers to recite a catechism of well-known figures, producing both shallow engagement and privileging a passé Great Man (and Woman) theory of history. Hardly any politician is immune to this; faced with the necessity of holding an event to mark the month, they too recite the list."

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/02/frederick-douglass-trump/515292/

I don't disagree.
The point of my thread was genuinely wondering why the average person would belittle the concept of a Black history month when nothing changes for him/her. It's really only has some effect in history,civics and politics classes in HS and college. The vast majority of people go about their lives with absolutely no change in their lives.