Carter G. Woodson, an early 20th-century historian, originally proposed Negro History Week, from which evolved our current Black History Month. The purpose of this month is to focus on the positive contributions that black Americans have made on our country.
That is, however, not the primary objective of Black History Month. Black History Month is not a period of time in which we look at the contributions of black people to American society and, in some way, try to make their “otherness” less foreign. But rather, this month should be spent reflecting upon the historical aspects of blackness, forcing everyone to answer the vital questions: What does it mean to be black? What does it mean to be white?
Being a white Southerner, I grew up in white communities, white schools and white churches where blackness was illustrated to us in a negative context, and, therefore, I have developed within myself an almost compulsory racism which is something that I internally struggle with a great deal. But my story is not atypical for students at the University of Alabama or much of the South, for that matter.
Southern culture heavily emphasizes a romanticized visage of the South. Objective history is despised below the Mason-Dixon almost as much as good science. Because we grew up in the South and because we are still so close to the racism of our past, whether we want that reality, it makes Black History Month so much more important to us.
Gloria Jean Watkins, under the pen name bell hooks said, “…white people are accustomed to taking the labor of black people for granted.” And it is true especially in the South, intentional or not. From cotton fields to football fields, we often neglect to give credit where credit is due. Black History Month allows for us to reflect on these issues.
Reflecting on these issues from a historical perspective is extremely important because it allows for us to see the role history has played in the constraints of black Americans. This approach enables us to adequately address racially charged contemporary issues in America.
Incorporating historical perspective also makes answering those fundamental questions of Black History Month – what it means to be black and what it means to be white – increasingly more difficult because we find that white and black were constructed by American elites to manipulate and control class structures.
“Black history forces us to say what kind of human beings are we going to be in America or in the New World or anywhere else,” Cornell West said recently in an interview with Craig Ferguson. The reality is that we do not live in a post-racial society, and racially motivated problems still exist in America today. Black History Month begs us to use our comprehensive history to answer these questions about whom we are and work through them to create a future rich with equality and justice.
Michael Patrick is a senior majoring in political science. His column runs on Tuesdays.
