As Ralph Ellison so eloquently put it in his 1970 book What America Would Be Like Without Blacks, “since the beginning of the nation, white Americans have suffered from a deep inner uncertainty as to who they really are. One of the ways that has been used to simplify the answer has been to seize upon the presence of black Americans and use them as a marker, a symbol of limits, a metaphor for the ‘outsider.’ Many whites could look at the social position of blacks and feel that color formed an easy and reliable gauge for determining to what extent one was or was not American. Perhaps that is why one of the first epithets that many European immigrants learned when they got off the boat was the term ‘nigger’ - it made them feel instantly American. But this is tricky magic. Despite his racial difference and social status, something indisputably American about Negroes not only raised doubts about the white man’s value system but aroused the troubling suspicion that whatever else the true American is, he is also somehow black.”
So in exploring the prima facie evidence, Freeman was right in his assessment that black history is American history, given that you cannot talk about America or American history without registering the enormous presence and offerings of blacks. And while he did not necessarily state it, Freeman is probably disturbed—as many black Americans are today—by what can only be described as the McDonaldlization of black culture.
Quite frankly, black history has been diluted, commodified and vended right alongside the Big Mac, with all its special sauce, lettuce and cheese, pickles and onions on a sesame bun. It is impossible to explore every territory of black history in just one month. Nevertheless black history has been parceled within February and habitually presented as a narrative that only includes the names Martin, Frederick, George, Harriet and, now, Rosa. Meanwhile the other a, b, c and d through z’s—perchance, Aldridge, Bethune, Coltrane, Delaney and Zora—of the black past in America are often ignored.
However, grappling with the distresses of having black history marginalized is one of the very reasons why Freeman’s assertions are imprudent and negligent. Subtracting Black History Month will further America’s unmitigated gull to mitigate the multifarious significances of black history and to narrow the references to the wide-ranging sophistication of a great number of black individuals.
Even more, while black cultural, intellectual and social contributions have added immense flavor to the American bouillabaisse, America has ran from her racial past where it concerns blacks and has donated a distorted black saga to the chronicles of American history. To put it kindly, blacks have been left off the pages of American textual history and overlooked in dialogues that capture those olden times, causing the context in which race and racism are both appraised to be severely misrepresented.
Article comments
1 - JustOneMan
What about Italian, Polish, German, Irish, Indian, Chinese, etc, etc, etc....
JOM
2 - zingzing
did you read the article, jom, or just the title?
3 - Doug Hunter
"it would let white America off the hook"
Tell you what. You let me off the hook for slavery and I'll let you off the hook for gang violence, then as Freeman suggested we'll be back to treating each other as individuals. (which is the only workable long term solution)
4 - Baronius
This article fails to provide evidence that black history is underrepresented outside February. Even if it did, it never addresses the point of Freeman's comments: that Black History Month is intellectual segregation.
5 - ETS
Baronius -
How about you provide evidence that black history IS adequately represented outside of February? Or even DURING February, for that matter?
"Intellectual segregation" is an overly academic term that means absolutely nothing. All fields of study are segregated to some extent. They have to be to be sufficiently studied/recognized.
The bottom line is that histories of underrepresented groups wouldn't have to be individually celebrated if our country embraced a more wholistic concept of history. It's an old and simple solution for an even older and more simple issue.
6 - ETS
Doug Hunter -
You have us on the hook for gang violence? LOL. Are you keeping whites on that hook too, considering their gang and mob-like mentalities are evident throughout world history.