Welcome, Black History Month!

It is here!  Once again  Black History Month has arrived, prompting the United States of America to review and contemplate the rich, troubled history of the Afro-American on its shores.  However,  Black History Month has always seemed to me to be more of a review and contemplative activity for Afro-Americans or Blacks than anyone else.   There is so much about our own history, as a racial group, that we are unfamiliar with.  I have often had to hold my own head in shame at discovering some morsel of history or some personnage that I had never heard of.   That is because we left the telling of our story to those who bludgeoned us with malice, demoralization and murderous contempt.  It is only in the past two decades that our story has begun to be told by us, that the annals of history have vastly broadened to show us how rich indeed our history has been.  African American studies courses now flourish across campuses, rooted by black.  These are thankfully accompanied by Gay and Lesbian Studies, Women's Studies and other ethnic and group studies.    Recently, however I read an article on AOL where some group was challenging a Mexican Studies course actually citing the course was used as a nationalist front meant to incite hatred against America.  Yes.  Sad but true. But as I stated, you can never and should never allow someone else to tell your story or your history (unless of course you are dictating it).   I always say the person telling the story is the person who is the hero.  Be your own hero!

The sad truth is I believe Black History Month should be more for whites than for blacks.  It should allow whites to uncover our history, the history that they want to turn their backs on.  This act would evaporate so many of their stereotypical thoughts and preconceived notions once they become intimately familiar with our history, which is the deformed, decrepit part of their own history.  That history is the history of the United States of America, of the white man, of the black man, the Native American.  We cannot hide from the ugliness in our character.  We must confront, subdue and transform it.  Otherwise we will never be fit to stand with integrity or to moderate character in others.

This country has an august destiny, but it cannot reconcile its past by dragging the chains of old ghosts behind it from one decade to another.  I  pray that more white folk will acknowledge the history, the black history of this country and the untold contributions and sacrifices that are buried in the soil and the blood of this nation.  As well, I think as a part of Black History Month, the black community should acknowledge the untold contributions and sacrifices of the many whites that have been our saviors, conspirators, friends, lovers and confidantes over the centuries.  In many instances our progress owed its success to their efforts. 

We all have much to do!  Let us do it for the sake of our country, for the sake of liberty, egality and brotherhood, the only things that truly make America...beautiful.