Celebrate Black History Month w/ "The Questions You've Always Wanted to Ask a Black Guy Series"

There may be some of you who haven’t notice but MrMary is a black person. As a black person the month of February means a lot to me living in America. It is the month where we get reminded how un-American we are.

Let me Explain

Some History

In 1925, a history professor named Carter G. Woodson first proposed what we now call Black History Month. It would profit America, Woodson wrote, to overturn a pedagogical tradition in which black Americans were customarily “overlooked, ignored, and even suppressed by the writers of history textbooks and the teachers who use them.” The son of a former slave, Woodson looked around at his partially reconstructed country and did not like what he saw. An entire class of people had simply been written out of America’s story on account of the color of their skin. If America wanted to see its house undivided, something had to be done. Instead, the practice of academic separation has been expanded. In 1976, Congress changed “Negro History Week” to “Black History Month,” with President Gerald Ford leading the effort to recognize it federally and taking it upon himself to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”

taken from here

Controversy Starts in 2005

In 2005, Morgan Freeman perfectly set out the obvious case against this trend, telling 60 Minutes’s Mike Wallace that Black History Month was “ridiculous.” “Why?” asked a surprised Wallace. “You’re going to relegate my history to a month?” asked Freeman, visibly annoyed. “Which month is Jewish History Month?” Wallace conceded that there wasn’t one. “Do you want one?” Freeman pressed. “No, no.” Well, Freeman concluded, “I don’t want a Black History Month” either. “Black history is American history.”

The Question of the Month!!!!

The question here is not so much whether blacks have disproportionately suffered historically — they have — or whether we still feel the legacy of that — we do — as it is whether the correct response to that suffering is to segregate black history into a separate branch of the curriculum or a single month on the school-year calendar. On most indicators — income, employment, education, incarceration, homeownership, etc. — black Americans still do worse than white Americans. But the notion that Black History Month must remain in force because there are still racial problems in America is a non sequitur. If there is still too little “black history” taught in America’s schools — or if “black history” is being taught incorrectly — then we should change the curriculum. If black Americans remain unfairly in the shadows, then the solution is to bring them out, not to sort and concentrate them by color.

MrMary Weighs in

I hate talking about race in general and when I do it only with select friends.

Obama got elected and re-elected twice,  black people went out in space and sing at the Superbowl. We aren’t forced to work on plantations or cut cane  and some of us do very well for ourselves financially so there is nothing to complain about. This is the general sentiment I see from others so why waste my breath ?

But as this is my blog I think I can be presumptuous enough to share my thoughts views and experiences  with the 5-10 of you outside  of my family and friends that come read my nonsense on this blog. So here is my plan

I will be sharing some of my experiences and thoughts with you. I will in every part of this P.S.A series, be as sarcastic and cynical as I can be. I will start it tomorrow 5 days late , because niggas are always late. I will of course feature past black athletes and entertainers and clips of the I Have a Dream speech – because running fast to entertain others while dreaming of something else is what do we so well.

Don’t worry, I will be posting my typical spiel  so for those of you un-interested in this series and who like my other stuff  you wont be missing anything, on many levels.

Related articles

• Expanding the borders of Black History Month (dailykos.com)
• Black History Month: Its True Origin and Purpose (stacyswimp.net)
• Morgan Freeman Says Black History Month is Ridiculous (VIDEO) (americanlivewire.com)
• Some History About Black History Month (theobamacrat.com)
• The Black History Month (islamiclifestylemagazine.wordpress.com)