There seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding of Black History Month and why we as Americans need to recognize it — teaching history from a white perspective is America’s default.
According to Washington Post, an educational video explaining the idea of structural racism providing more opportunities for white Americans was banned after backlash from students and their families flooded districts.
Believe it or not, America is not completely white. Neither are the people our Founding Fathers wholly abused to make their dream nation a reality.
Black History Month isn’t around to glorify black history and elevate it above all other aspects of history, but rather give recognition to the chapters of our past that often get glossed over.
Not only were Native Americans slaughtered by the thousands, with survivors usually relocating out of their territory to create plots of land deemed suitable for development, but the slave trade brought millions of Africans to the New World to be exploited for back-breaking physical labor and domestic toil.
With children’s books like “A Birthday Cake for George Washington” framing slaves as happy-go-lucky domestic servants with deep emotional attachments to their masters and a textbook still being used in 276 Texas school districts calling slaves nothing more than “workers,” it can be hard to remember what, or who, really built America.
I can understand the arguments that if the black population gets a month of their own to acknowledge their contributions to history, all minority groups should. But, most do have an equivalent month throughout the year, though they may not all be as publicized as Black History Month. November is Native American Heritage Month, while Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month occurs in May and Hispanic Heritage Month is honored from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15.
The general public just doesn’t like to acknowledge them, for whatever reason.
And, no, there isn’t a specific Caucasian/White Heritage or History Month. There is just no reason for one to exist. In fact, the entire reason race-specific representation months exist is because those avenues of the past are so rarely traversed in standard history lessons.
If African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans and Asian-Americans were thoroughly integrated into curriculums and common knowledge, we as a population wouldn’t need to set aside specific times to give them the credit they deserve in our collective past.
Historians often say that history is written by the victors, and in no minced terms, white Americans made sure they were victorious in the early days of our formation. The narratives providing the foundation for the way American history were told almost exclusively by white men, especially before the turn of the new millennium.
Even in the modern day, there are subtle reminders that whiteness is America’s default setting when sharing history. Literature classes revolve almost exclusively around white authors, unless there is a section of the curriculum dedicated to more “ethnic” pieces.
So, maybe we should shift our focus to empowering the minorities that are only given one-twelfth of the year to be recognized as players in American history. Maybe we should start to actively break down the walls that keep them in “other” categories.
And maybe, just maybe, we should stop trying to make White History Month happen.
