We’re nearing the end of Black History Month, so I’d like to discuss a question that I remember hearing in elementary school.

Every February, we learned about black inventors, speakers, activists and legends of all types of occupations, and there was always one person who just had to ask the dreaded question, “Why is there no white history month?”

When I was young, I didn’t realize the problematic nature of this question. This stemmed from my experience as a white person. As I’ve grown older and wiser, I have come to realize just how offensive and degrading this question is. Due to my whiteness, I have never felt the harsh and demanding effects of racism in the United States. I do consider myself an ally to the movement for racial justice, and that is why I am writing this column.

There is a short and simple answer to why there is no white history month, and it’s that practically every month is white history month.

A key way to address this issue is to look at general education curriculums. Before I came to college, I was taught about the Civil War at least six times. Yet each time, I learned that it was not fought over slavery (spoiler alert: it was). I never learned about the hardships that black people faced immediately after emancipation, as our content seemed to skip directly to the civil rights era.

Even in English classes, the curriculum never focused on African-American authors. Sure, you can take a specific class for it, but why is this segment of history left out of general education? This is an erasure of American history. Our curriculums should not exclude the legacies of black Americans, even if the narratives aren’t pretty.

The acknowledgement of certain histories over others is also prevalent in college curriculums. American Civilization and World History are classes required for general education history requirements, while African-American history classes are upper-level electives.

We live in a country that makes whiteness the standard. Being white is glorified from every angle, ranging from governmental policies and institutions to history lessons in our grade school classes.

The standard of whiteness delves deeper than general education. It can be seen when looking at job and housing availability, beauty norms, governmental policies, the wealth gap and various other systems in our society.

White settlers came to the U.S., uprooted the Native Americans living here and proceeded to exploit and abuse African people through chattel slavery. The U.S. became a land founded upon whiteness, and the country has made it evident that it values this standard.

The erasure of African-American legacies from general history only enhances the standard of whiteness in America. If white people are not familiar with the horrific history of the treatment of black people in the country, they cannot see the widespread effects of racism.

Black History Month serves a distinct and crucial purpose: to educate the American people on the commonly forgotten history it once enabled. We must recognize the past to understand the present, and no one can truly understand the racial turmoil of the U.S. without a foundation of all of its history.

So why isn’t there a white history month? Because there is absolutely no need for one. We live in a society that echoes the standard of whiteness from every angle. The title of Black History Month merely serves as a national recognition of forgotten history that should at the forefront of discussion year round.