Black History Month: overcoming captivity and the inclinations of separatism

(06:04:14 CST)

Black History Month: overcoming captivity and the inclinations of separatism

Black History Month has this weekend left to go, a portion of which is already gone. While I have no "Big Book of Black History Months" stored away, it felt lesser this year, like people were dialing it in or trying to overlook it. President Obama is indirectly to blame. There are some who see a black-man as president and think "What the hell is so special about black history, now? WE HAVE A BLACK MAN AS PRESIDENT!" As far as an argument goes, that one is about as profound as saying "So what if my neighbor killed three of my pets, he's moved away!" It is a solution, surely. There is even some truth to it. It is just, well, it's not like it made Jesse Owens' life any easier. History is not retro-active. Blacks have not won some collective prize that now unlocks the past and grants them some post-facto immunity to social climes. No, Nervous White Person, you do not get to pretend it did not happen.

Let's be honest, though, I am not talking about what we or even our parents did. I am talking about what an institutionalized subjugation of a people did.

The sad decline of Black History Month is due to two natural inclinations in mankind. First, we see history as a filtered version of the present. Often better, more golden, less noisy. If our present doesn't seem to mind black folks all that much, at least not as much, then how can the past have really minded black folk? Maybe they (insert your own definition of "they", here) are making it up? Did Rosa Parks really have a problem? I mean, I saw a black woman sitting towards the front of the bus just yesterday! While it sounds like I am being facetious, I am not. This is something we do, all the time. Go and talk to any proper nationalist, and you will be told about the great days before this nation went to rot. Then go and look up the history of this nation in books; and realize there has never been a time, here, where someone has not felt that way.

Our other inclination is best summed up by a quote from Benjamin Disraeli: "The difference of race is one of the reasons why I fear war may always exist because race implies difference, difference implies superiority, and superiority leads to predominance." Not just race, mind you, but the idea of factionalism all around. We, in Alabama, know that we are better than those from Georgia. We know it in our souls. If a place we live makes us feel a sense of pride, what about the much deeper historical divide of race?

We are lead, then, to take Black History Month as an attempt to say that these people did all these things because they were black. School kids take such things seriously. It hurts a young boy's feelings, for instance, when you tell him that girls are nicer. White students feel like you are denigrating them and their family when history is taught in this way: a narrative of evil whiteys and noble African warriors. That "because" is also part of a deeply racist attitude. Not only is focusing on the blackness in an of itself racist, perhaps a benign sort of racism, but more so acting as though it was the blackness of these various inventors and innovators that is the big deal. Of course black people can be inventors and innovators. Of course they can participate in sports and politics. Jesus. Acting like it is special that they could do such a thing is like looking at a baby's hands and going "Oh, they're like people hands!"

The intentions behind the month, as I see it, are not that they did these things because they were black, but despite the fact they were black at a given and shameful time in our country's history. A time where being black meant you were less than a citizen. You drank from different fountains. Southern governors stood in doorways to keep you, personally, out of school. When people came around telling everyone that you were humans, too, and deserved better: sometimes those people ended up dead. In this backdrop, surrounded by adversity, our various heroes of Black History Month rose up and got noticed. Not only did they also invent, but they invented life-saving techniques and wholly new ways to process things. Not only did they also compete, but they won in the Olympics. Not only did they also stand up for their rights, but they did it while having guns and hoses in their face, not with snarky letters to the local news paper or postings to their favorite social site. In a time where it was hard to just be an "also", they were excelling.

Because of that first inclination, we don't think it is a big deal to begin with; and, because of the second, we think that making a big deal about black inventors means we are crapping on white ones. Asians ones. We are not. I am not, anyhow, when I acknowledge Black History Month. I am not insulting anyone. I am celebrating a few that did more than I ever would have with their lot in life.

That's why I am beginning to think that we need to start answering the question "Where is my White History Month?" with "This is not about being black, it is about overcoming captivity." The men and women we celebrate during the month were the ones who made it possible for a black president to be elected. They made it respectable.

Part of me also thinks that Black History Month (or at least its ilk) should be retooled. Focus less on a given number of people and more on the very act of institutionalize subjugation. That is where the evil lies. Go and look at the Dora exhibit at UAHuntsville. At what the Nazi's did to the Jews in the name of science. Look up information on Darfur. Go and research the various genocides and the various race laws around the world. Much of that is in the past, currently, but so much could easily return one day. Hopefully, America will never again go so far in the "war against cultures". It is good, though, to have some reminders embedded in our fabric, some call-backs.

Si Vales, Valeo

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