To be certain, racism has largely been dismissed and not given an arena for the national discourse necessary to minimize its stain on American life because the social history of black America, which has often included clarion calls for justice, liberty and deference to black aesthetic traditions, has been unobserved and not negotiated. Accordingly, Freeman’s contention that America rid itself of racism by not talking about it travels an impractical fault line.
Not talking about racism means not talking about a vast part of American history, that section, which includes a history for blacks that has been repeatedly marked by racism. Consequently, racism will continue to be perpetuated while black history will continue to be neglected from American history. It is quite certain than that there is still a space needed for black history if it is to ever become incorporated into American history. By not talking about black history, America will never see the need to include it in the annals of American history as has been already evidenced by America’s treatment of the black cosmos.
The irony is that black history has been contiguous with American history however not given the same inspection or regard in the classroom, which not only helps to better explain the lack of awareness of the manifold contributions to American society by blacks, but a more ostensible reason why Freeman’s argument needs checking. In fact, Freeman only has to look to the classroom to see that more than black history month is needed.
When Carter G. Woodson first proposed the notion of Negro History Week in 1926 during the second week in February—coinciding it with the birthdays of Frederick Douglas and Abraham Lincoln—that later was extended to a month, he had hoped that the month would eventually be unnecessary as he felt that America would promote the integration of black history with the rest of American history. In fact, Woodson believed that if you could ever get Douglas to be as built-in to American studies as Lincoln was sure to be, there would be absolutely no need for Black History Month.
However, when you explore the American classroom, black history has not met the fate that Woodson desired. If truth be told, black history, while there have been some progresses, has not become a staple inside of American educational institutions. How then can the necessity of Black History Month be diminished? Better stated, how can an appreciation for black contributions to American history ever be reached, whereby a fusion of the intimately-related histories can take place, if black history is not deemed significant enough to make inroads inside the American schoolroom?
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.