I like this. From Marvel Comic’s Truth: Red, White & Black by Bob Morales and Kyle Baker.

“Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history.” ~Carter G. Woodson, the “Father of Black History”, founder of Negro History Week, a precursor to Black History Month

Every year Black History Month brings up a lot of issues for me. After a few recent conversations I decided to address those issues this entire month!

Firstly even as a child I felt Black History Month was poorly taught. Maybe that’s a given if you’ve ever had to sit through an awkward white teacher trying to make a classroom full of Black kids understand the need for a Civil Rights Movement or benefits of slavery.

Not to be left out, I also take issue with Black adults who don’t offer Black children the same rehashed Black History stuff in sporadic bouts with even less context than what is offered in school. Saying things like “People didn’t march on Washington for you to have your pants sagging” is absurd. “Young people need to read more” also useless unless you’re willing to offer a serious reading list a comment like that should be left out of conversations with young people.

The History of Black people on this planet is too important a subject to be so mishandled every year. Dragging out the old MLK “I Have A Dream” speech for children to see once a year is a criminal. Shaving that man’s life down to one speech does us all an injustice everywhere.

They call this guy “The Teacher”.

Here’s a few of my issues with BHM itself:

All this talk of BHM and more of my peers learned who George Washington Carver was than Carter G. Woodson who started BHM in the first place.

Why does George Washington Carver get to be so popular for all the wrong things?

We were allowed for far too long to perpetuate the idea that BHM was the shortest month of the year because Black people just can’t catch a break in this white man’s country. As kids I doubt we were ever taught how BHM got to be in February in the first place.

As far as the way it’s taught:

There was no understanding that these people may have worked together, let alone may have known each other.

No explanation of what these leaders were taught as children that helped them become leaders.

No real acknowledgment of the sacrifices made by the people being lead, not just the leaders.

Where were the Caribbean BHM heroes and heroines? African ones? The connections between them? What about Africa anyway? The BHM story typically still starts with slavery.

Simply put I learned what really learning about Black History did for me and I aim to pass that on to you. I know I can’t sit through another BHM that doesn’t answer the same questions so many had the year before.

I paraphrase one Black scholar who said, “Black History cannot be an exercise in feeling good. It has to be applied. If you fail to learn from Black History you will die feeling good.” The implication is that no progress will have been made and we would all be comfortable and busy feeling good.

This month we will go through some of my life’s journey in dealing with Black History Month along with quotes that enlightened me over the years from a few voices you may not have heard before. Hopefully you’ll get some context to some of these extraordinary lives and maybe we’ll both learn a thing or two along the way. I even threw in a few surprises!