Black History Month Alternatives

[Bufoman]

Hello.

 

 

 

I just came upon an idea for an alternative to Black History Month, and I would like to discuss it with you, and see what you think.

 

 

 

I would like to see this month changed to Africa History Month, and a history month added for all the other continents. So for Europe their would be Europe History Month, for Asia Asia History Month and so on. I am just sick of being dragged into the old guilt trip every February for something I, and my ancestors had nothing to do with. So I thought why not do something educational about world history without all the guilt instead? It might help bring us all closer together instead of driving us further apart every year.

 

 

 

Discuss please.

[Lenticular_J]

I think it'd be a good idea, but to be honest this is asking for a flame war here. I honestly don't see why we only have a black history month. Some people say it was the oppression, but we pwned Native Americans and Mexican-Americans, too. And Canadia pwned a good deal of Eskimos and polar bears.

[Agunimon979]

Agreed, tired of getting the hate stares every time we watch a video about black history month.

[Giordano]

Or just end the whole idea of Black History month...? And Hispanic Heritage Month? Yeah, that'll be good.

[Bufoman]

I have no intention of starting a flame war, I simply desire to discuss this idea and see if it has any merit. Just want to make that clear, and I would appreciate it if people can discuss an Idea without getting angry and calling each other names for a change.

[deloriagod]

Deleted. ~meol

 

On topic:

 

 

 

I think the should just get rid of black history month. People are not going to treat black people better because they're "informed" about the [cabbage] black people went through. They're going to be treated the same and people are going to be annoyed that they have to sit there and hear the same thing again every year.

[Nenga]

This is a good idea. Instead of promoting anti-white attitudes, promote education. I mean you are only in school.

[mmmcannibalism]

Going to be so tricky to post this without sounding racist but...

 

 

 

Has anyone else in America noticed that the message that hating blacks is bad gets sent to us at a non stop rate. I fully realize europeans have screwed over pretty much everyone else throughout history, and that we should cover this stuff so it doesnt happen again. In history we linger forever on the fact that slavery is bad, in english half the books we read are about tolerance. Of course these are good messages that should be taught, but if you dont get that racism is bad by high school you arent going to get it.

 

 

 

The idea of a month for each continent sounds great except that we should already be getting our world history education in history class.

[magekillr]

I really don't feel like getting into this, as it appears I'm in the minority here...so I'll be brief.

 

 

 

This is a completely ridiculous premise, because every month is European History month. If you find yourself being guilt tripped, well that's your issue.

[Kriegsmier]

Hello.

 

 

 

I just came upon an idea for an alternative to Black History Month, and I would like to discuss it with you, and see what you think.

 

 

 

I would like to see this month changed to Africa History Month, and a history month added for all the other continents. So for Europe their would be Europe History Month, for Asia Asia History Month and so on. I am just sick of being dragged into the old guilt trip every February for something I, and my ancestors had nothing to do with. So I thought why not do something educational about world history without all the guilt instead? It might help bring us all closer together instead of driving us further apart every year.

 

 

 

Discuss please.

 

 

 

TOTALLY AGREE.

 

 

 

I use the term "they" here lightly, don't get your panties in a wad people...

 

 

 

The whole argument for years and years has been for equality, yet they want to have a whole month to celebrate their own history? Sounds very separated from the whole unified America they want to me. Take it away i say, celebrate America as a whole. The argument of slavery being part of American history holds no weight with me, every country has dark times. Celebration is for good times, focus on the good times. Black History Month is just an excuse to rub the slavery issue in our faces and put us on a guilt trip.

 

 

 

As a white person i always hated that month. Not because of the actual "holiday/celebration", but for the fact that it was forced upon us. Especially in school. I felt uncomfortable with it and grew tired of it every year. Take it away.

[InkofDeath]

I think it'd be a good idea, but to be honest this is asking for a flame war here. I honestly don't see why we only have a black history month. Some people say it was the oppression, but we pwned Native Americans and Mexican-Americans, too. And Canadia pwned a good deal of Eskimos and polar bears.

 

Nope, we pwned beavers, and natives/Indians.

 

 

 

I've always felt uneasy about the month, and so have a lot of my friends, who have had great grand parents as slaves, and their parents don't agree with Black History Month.

 

 

 

All this month shows is that the 'let's try to get attention by any means necessary' is in everyone, and not divided by colour. Or so I think, or was it a white person who started, or prompted the month? If so, well then some of us are screwed.

[Abelmisi]

As this is a highly controversial topic, I would take to opportunity to remind all of you to be cautious with your words. What you think is neutral thing to say, may be hurtful to some.

 

 

 

Don't let a good discussion end in a flamewar... that's good for nobody.

[RichieMcD]

IMO scrap any of the "months" and just make an "America" month, A African American is just as much American as a European American, sames goes for for Asians, Hispanics etc etc. As long as they hold an American passport they are as much American as a White European American.

[Latinoking]

dragged into the old guilt trip

 

 

 

It's a month for simply one to remember what MLK and other powerful African Americans did to help people of their race. It's not suppose to be "Remember how you unfairly you treated us" month.

[dragoonson]

And Canadia

 

 

 

That's what I call it.And people from there are Canadans.

 

 

 

Personally,I don't think you should have just a black history month.Thats racist too.And by the way,without any offense meant,why do blacks say they were treated unfairly?Throughout history many conquerors have kept the natives of the conquered lands as slaves.Now,unless,I dunno,the lands had been destroyed,I don't see any "unfairness" in particular...

[Ginger_Warrior]

In Britain, we are taught about how the slave trade brought the economic prosperity we enjoyed during the Industrial Revolution; that we traded finished goods and weapons to Africa for slaves, which we sent to the Caribbean and used them to farm cotton for the mills in England. This is taught in History classes, and it is reinforced that our economic success was as much down to our dreadful treatment of African slaves as it was down to the working effort of the workers who worked in the mills, the factories and the coal pits in appalling conditions.

 

 

 

I don't like racialising this issue. I don't like to look at the world from a British perspective and go "We white Brits mistreat black people". They weren't targeted for being black. They were targeted for being weak and technologically inferior. It was exploitation - racism was just the consequence, not the cause.

 

 

 

Instead, I look at the whole picture. The Industrial Revolution was not successful just because of the mistreatment of slaves, it was also successful because whites were treated with scant regard for their working and living conditions as well. The difference is at least white people had some sort of voice eventually through the Suffragette and and Trade Union movements, and had a political party to relate to in the Liberals and later on, the Labour Party. Black slaves didn't, and didn't have a voice until 100 years later when MLK eventually emerged as a leader of their struggle for some sort of equality.

 

 

 

That's the view of history we should be teaching. We shouldn't be teaching that treating just black people in the way we did was wrong - we should be teaching that exploiting anyone in that way is wrong. We should be looking at the world today. Single parents, old people, young people, Muslims, Jews, homosexuals, immigrants, women. All of these groups are discriminated or prejudiced against in one way or another.

 

 

 

Has slavery even been abolished? No, of course it hasn't. Europe has a massive problem with the 'sex slave trade', where women are forced to pay off their "debts" by offering services as a prosititute.

 

 

 

The point of Black History Month, if anything, is to raise awareness of discrimination and the sort of misjustice that stems from it. It's supposed to get people looking at the world around them and realising that discrimination still exists, that it is wrong, and that it needs to be combated.

 

 

 

If people are taking Black History Month as a guilt trip, then the point has been lost and needs to be "refocused", so to speak. The point isn't just that black people were mistreated, but the black civil rights movement just epitomises the topic.

[Will H]

Ginger, I agree with you. If this is what Black History Month is leaving, it needs a re-thought.

[1_man_army]

I don't see the problem with Black History Month. Most schools tend to teach an extremely Eurocentric syllabus (as magekillr said) and black history is often overlooked despite it being an important aspect of what has made our nations what they are today. I don't see why people should be threatened or deem the idea racist, it wouldn't hurt you to learn about a key area of history. The idea isn't to guilt trip people over slavery or racism in general but to what has happened in the past.

[hellbellz]

How about we take out Black History month? Morgan Freeman thinks we should.

[cadburys_egg]

Thank you for the cotton month?

 

Honestly, this is an excuse for black people to once again whine about "YOU MISTREATED US NOW PAY US BACK, YO!". Every year we hear the same thing, and since I leave near Bristol - one of the biggest, most famous ports during that era - I get a big earful of it. Yes, we enslaved poorer, less advanced people. Yes, they were black. Were they targeted at first because they were black? No. People came to associate being black with people poor. And why wouldnt they? They had nothing to prove them otherwise and so they exploited it. Was that a bad thing? Depends whose side we look to. Maybe its a slightly communist thing to say, but the greater good did benefit from it - economy was developed and a new market opened up.

 

Im not a particularly "PC" person, but do we really need a yearly reminder of it? It was abolished in 1833 for christs sake. Are any of the people who were once slaves still around? Their children? No, neither. Its black people who think they might be able to still get a little more, milking it for all its worth - and that cow dried up years ago.

 

Now im not saying slavery is completely a thing of the past, it probably frequents the underworld, but we should deal with that as it happens. Trying to teach us why slavery is bad year by year is like forcing yourself to crash your car once a year just to remind yourself why you shouldnt do it. If it was so bad, why do they feel the need to keep reminding us of it? It just sparks more opportunities for adverse affects to happen.

[magekillr]

People need to re-read Ginger's post...over, and over, and over again...

[evil_mumm_ra]

I think it'd be a good idea, but to be honest this is asking for a flame war here. I honestly don't see why we only have a black history month. Some people say it was the oppression, but we pwned Native Americans and Mexican-Americans, too. And Canadia pwned a good deal of Eskimos and polar bears.

 

 

 

polar bear history month plox.

[silver_wits]

What about extinct animal month... or rare animal month... you know.. to show we care for hunting animals almost/to the point of extinction?

 

 

 

I dont remember who said this just now, but I agree.

 

we don't need to cut black history month, but we need to change the way some people view it.

 

I doubt it was ever meant to be viewed as a guilt trip.

 

and People shouldn't focus too much on slavery. focus on the good things.

 

 

 

and, black people weren't the ony one without rights. :wall:

 

Females also didn;t have much rights back then... :?

 

even if they were property owners, they didn't have the right to vote.

 

and most didn't/couldn't own property. if they were raped... I doubt their attackers got punished as they would today.

 

 

 

so if we're gonna talk about in-equality. start talking about feminism as well.

[Lenticular_J]

if they were raped... I doubt their attackers got punished as they would today.

 

Actually, in many places, particularly the West, rape was a crime worse than stealing a horse. That's why prostitutes kept pistols loaded and hidden, but where they could reach them in case of an emergency. And if someone raped a bachelorette, someone's daughter, or someone's wife? They were in deep [cabbage].

[silver_wits]

really? let's google it.

 

 

 

http://www.trivia-library.com/a/history ... uction.htm

 

More Awareness, but More Rapes. In 1973, thanks to the aggressive campaigning of women's groups (from the most radical Rape Crisis Centers to the conservative 11-million-member General Federation of Women's Clubs) and to realistic media coverage, the American consciousness regarding rape was raised as never before. Has this resulted in a reduction of forcible rape cases? No.

 

 

 

maybe you need to remember that in the old days, it was pretty normal for 14 year olds to get married.

 

and, just because you're married to someone, doesn't mean everything is consensual.

 

People didn't get punished for doing anything to the females they were married.. unless they killed or maimed them.