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If there is so much talk of black history I invite posters to tell me why it is increasingly not unusual for more than a few black kids to not know who MLK is.
Indeed if I have a criticism about BHM its that it too often is reduced to celebrations of MLK, to the exclusion of topics not taught within mainstream history classes.
Bottom line is when a poster rants that black history isn't important, than it just goes to show that American history isn't being taught properly, and that BHM is needed until it is. Because there has been a heavy interaction between blacks and whites throughout history. Much of this nation's history has been impacted by this large group of people and how the larger society treated them, and each other as a result.
Indeed shocking as it might be to some, but the main reason why we don't have universal healthcare in this country, as is the case in EVERY other wealthy nation, is because the elites gave the impression that the poor are undeserving black people, who shouldn't be helped, and so there was no need for a comprehensive social safety net. Of course that left poor whites out in the cold, but in this country a white waitress thinks that she is middle class, because in her head, to be poor, she must be black, and she isn't. So she doesn't fight for programs aimed at the poor, because she views the poor as underserving blacks, and now more recently, immigrants.
Spot on. Wish I could rep you again. It will be great when poor whites wake up and realize they've been sold a dream.
Are schools really dedicating an entire month to this? Or just bringing up a couple examples of people during the month, whose skin color may have played a noteworthy factor in the shaping of their life and or accomplishments.
So if they are not dedicating an entire month to this them why do we have it?
Why not just cover the many legitamit accomplishments in chronological order like how the rest of US history is taught?
Unfortunately, it is not being expanded upon and that is my point in regards to BHM still being needed and relevant. If BHM disappeared, black history would still not be expanded in school curriculum.
As stated within this thread - many school districts have books that negate the existence of slavery even in this country! History is being washed down and having BHM is a way to keep the thought in people's mind and preserve the discourse that black Americans have contributed greatly to this country.
I understand what you mean about the divide attitude in our country. Believe me, I do, it sickens me the constant racial crap that goes on in our country, but unfortunately, the racial crap is here to stay for the time being. Also the minorities, including black people, did not start the racial divide and we are not the primary people who continue it or try to find fault with other people's cultures and celebrations.
This thread is evidence of that. I linked you the German American thread where German achievements were highlighted on multiple pages and black posters here did not try to take away from those achievements or try to act like there was something wrong with celebrating the German contributions to our great nation. Celebrating black contributions is not divisive, if anything, it provides proof of America being a "great melting Pot" of cultures and ethnicities. We should do more to celebrate all sorts of contributions via utilizing all of the celebratory months at our disposal. I am grateful that so many black scholars in the past, especially Carter G. Woodson made it their life's work to dig deep and bring forth the worldly contributions of the Africans and black Americans during a time when we were relegated as dumb brutes and laborers. What they accomplished in BHM is a great achievement and was revolutionary and a part of what defines the American spirit.
When I was in school there was no "focus" on black history. The focus was on American history, which included slavery. I was there during MLK and the CRMs. What I know today came from my own curiosity through reading books and research (to this day). I think some people just don't care - not because its about black history, it's just that they don't care and you can't force someone to care about something they have no interest in. The same way many people don't care about the history of the American Revolution (even when it was being taught in school). For obvious reasons, black people want to learn about their history. And this would be the same for people of every other ethnicity that had a poor American moment in history.
With regard to divide - white people may have created the divide, but at this point in time its a mutual divide. Both sides are contributing to it and we really don't know who is contributing the most. In my opinion, it's pretty equal. As long as things keep going the way they are going, racial divide is here to stay. I highly doubt that most Americans actually make an effort to try to find fault with other cultures and celebrations.
I'm going to say what many people think: the "push", which almost seems like "force and demand", that everyone needs to be deeply educated about black history could be a turn off. It's like when someone screams, most people don't hear what they are saying they just hear the screaming and walk away.
I got to thinking about Chinese slavery in America (part of history). My curiosity lead me to this and makes me wonder if black people aren't negating this or is this just "irrelevant"?:
Quote:
From the late 1700s to the 1860s, the Five Civilized Tribes were involved in the institution of African slavery as planters and several tribal members began acquiring African-American slaves for field work, domestic work, and various trades.[SIZE=2][12][/SIZE] The 1809 census taken by Cherokee agent Colonel Return J. Meigs, Sr. counted 583 "Negro slaves" held by Cherokee slaveowners.[SIZE=2][13][/SIZE] By 1835, that number increased to 1,592 slaves, with more than seven percent (7.4%) of Cherokee families owning slaves, a greater percentage than across the South, where about 5% of families owned slaves.[SIZE=2][14][/SIZE] Slaves marched with Cherokee slaveowners and other citizens on the Trail of Tears, the forced relocation of Native Americans from their original lands to Indian Territory. Of the Five Civilized Tribes in Indian Territory, the Cherokee held the most enslaved African Americans.[SIZE=2][15][/SIZE] Prominent Cherokee slaveowners included the families of Joseph Lynch, Joseph Vann, Major Ridge, Stand Watie, Elias Boudinot, and Principal Chief John Ross.
While slavery was less common among full-blood Cherokee, there were both full-blood and mixed-blood Cherokee slaveowners.[SIZE=2][16][/SIZE] An example of the former is Tarsekayahke, also known by the name "Shoe Boots". A full-blood Cherokee slaveowner, farmer, and veteran war hero who fought for the Cherokee in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend during the Creek War, Shoe Boots fathered three children with a woman named Doll, a slave that he acquired in the late 1700s. Since the children were born to a slave, they inherited Doll’s slave status. On October 20, 1824, Shoe Boots petitioned the Cherokee National Council to grant emancipation for his children and have them recognized as free Cherokee citizens. Shoe Boots stated in his petition,
By 1830 were 3,775 black families living in the South who owned black slaves. By 1860 there were about 3,000 slaves owned by black households in the city of New Orleans alone.
This is part of black history. If that was taught in school I think some might declare "hypocrisy" seeing as how black history teaches that only white people were responsible for slavery.
Great post. And you are spot on with what I put in bold. It's interesting how some people think that blacks are sheep to the Democrat party, yet they aren't able to see that the GOP does a great job at brainwashing poor whites.
Two events in history which 99.9% of Americans don't know about.
1. In VA, or MD (cant remember which state) the Irish and African slaves/indentures had several rebellions against their English masters. In order to break this alliance, slavery became modified to become a race based, rather than status based system with blacks held as slaves in perpetuity, and deprived of legal rights as blacks.
2. In the South most of the sharecroppers were whites in the early 20th C. When a group of black and white sharecroppers attempted to jointly confront the system which exploited both, it was brutally crushed , with the whites persecuted as "communists", and "N" lovers. You have probably heard the expression "free, white, and over 21". Apparently even if one was dirt poor, at least they had "whiteness". Its without irony that the region in the USA with the worst legacy of racism, is also the one with the deepest levels of white poverty.
The Appalachians have some of the deepest levels of poverty with the highest levels of dependency on Federal support, and yet the vote for a party which reserves Federal assistance for wealthy landowners and for corporate loop holes. Just see the angst when the Feds talk about removing tax deductions for luxury vacation properties, jets, and yachts. Yet poor dirt farmers in WV endorse this.
When I was in school there was no "focus" on black history. The focus was on American history, which included slavery. I was there during MLK and the CRMs. What I know today came from my own curiosity through reading books and research (to this day). I think some people just don't care - not because its about black history, it's just that they don't care and you can't force someone to care about something they have no interest in. The same way many people don't care about the history of the American Revolution (even when it was being taught in school). For obvious reasons, black people want to learn about their history. And this would be the same for people of every other ethnicity that had a poor American moment in history.
With regard to divide - white people may have created the divide, but at this point in time its a mutual divide. Both sides are contributing to it and we really don't know who is contributing the most. In my opinion, it's pretty equal. As long as things keep going the way they are going, racial divide is here to stay. I highly doubt that most Americans actually make an effort to try to find fault with other cultures and celebrations.
I'm going to say what many people think: the "push", which almost seems like "force and demand", that everyone needs to be deeply educated about black history could be a turn off. It's like when someone screams, most people don't hear what they are saying they just hear the screaming and walk away.
I got to thinking about Chinese slavery in America (part of history). My curiosity lead me to this and makes me wonder if black people aren't negating this or is this just "irrelevant"?:
This is part of black history. If that was taught in school I think some might declare "hypocrisy" seeing as how black history teaches that only white people were responsible for slavery.
While there were many black slave owners its is very dishonest of you to claim that the first slave owner was black. Slavery was a status established by law and the transition from indenture to slavery was not performed by one man. It was through various acts of law passed by various legal bodies in the various colonies. Mr. Johnson would NOT have had the right to hold a man in perpetuity as a slave against his will unless he had a legal right to do so.
Now if you did further research you would discover that ultimately, as slavery became race based, and as the increasing numbers of black freedmen became a threat, that the children of this man lost their lands. TELL the whole story PLEASE.
BTW can you prove that there is a conspiracy by blacks to deny that there were black slave owners? Indeed I have watched several PBS programs where BLACK historians, including Gates, have talk about blacks who owned slaves. You see where there is INTELLIGENT discussion of black history a whole range of facts are revealed that remain undiscussed in the lazy BHM portrayals put on by people who think that it is a chore that they must engage in only for PC purposes.
To quote a black historian. If every single landowner used free labor, why do you think that the one black farmer would pay wages, when that would guarantee that he couldn't compete? This with reference to the SAME Mr. Johnson. This in order to attempt to understand why a man who was formerly a slave would enslaves others.
The fact that some Native Americans groups were also slave owners, has also been discussed, and indeed the issue with the attempt by some Native groups to marginalize those who have visible African ancestry has been well discussed.
I know that you peddle this is you try to process your white guilt, but this isn't working. Regardless as to who might have engaged in the systems of slavery as practiced in the USA it was a system upheld mainly by whites, and if these people didn't aggressively ensure that it existed it would have collapsed.
Are you going to tell us that Jim Crow came about because blacks wanted it?
Now as to the divide. Yes some blacks clearly contribute to it. But given the legacy of extreme racism in this country, and the continuing levels of informal racial segregation, why the shock that many blacks, fearful of humiliation, remain skeptical of the intentions of whites, and think the worse, even where not merited?
I mean how many whites in this country will willing walk into an environment where they are the only white? FEW. Yet they accuse blacks of being separatists.
So please understand why those blacks who have had limited contact with whites are often defensive.
Don't get me started on black people in TV commercials....ugh...
Usually they are just the token black or some crazy stereotype who always dance and listens to hip hop music.
I have noticed they are getting better now but I also see more commercials with whites who are trying to act cool by displaying some sort of black stereotype like a nerdy white guy rapping and them saying some sort of slang that many of the complainers on this forum would delegate as ebonics or ghetto speak.
Yep. Black is definitely hip...as long as you're white. Just ask Macklemore.
When I was in school there was no "focus" on black history. The focus was on American history, which included slavery. I was there during MLK and the CRMs. What I know today came from my own curiosity through reading books and research (to this day). I think some people just don't care - not because its about black history, it's just that they don't care and you can't force someone to care about something they have no interest in. The same way many people don't care about the history of the American Revolution (even when it was being taught in school). For obvious reasons, black people want to learn about their history. And this would be the same for people of every other ethnicity that had a poor American moment in history.
With regard to divide - white people may have created the divide, but at this point in time its a mutual divide. Both sides are contributing to it and we really don't know who is contributing the most. In my opinion, it's pretty equal. As long as things keep going the way they are going, racial divide is here to stay. I highly doubt that most Americans actually make an effort to try to find fault with other cultures and celebrations.
I'm going to say what many people think: the "push", which almost seems like "force and demand", that everyone needs to be deeply educated about black history could be a turn off. It's like when someone screams, most people don't hear what they are saying they just hear the screaming and walk away.
I got to thinking about Chinese slavery in America (part of history). My curiosity lead me to this and makes me wonder if black people aren't negating this or is this just "irrelevant"?:
This is part of black history. If that was taught in school I think some might declare "hypocrisy" seeing as how black history teaches that only white people were responsible for slavery.
Another thing that is also overlooked that it was black people selling other black people in Africa during the slave trade.
Agreed. What's sad is that the usual curriculum in school doesn't automatically talk about these great black people any other time of the year except in February. And it's usually the same folks (King, Tubman, Parks, etc). Would be great if lesser-known black folks are discussed. You don't get that history until college if you choose to take an AA history course.
Unless they've changed the terminology and nobody told Google, I think you mean "AP" (American) History.
And PC liberals, stop here or your head is going to explode...
...if you notice, all the "great black people" referred to (and the others not mentioned), all have the exactly same accomplishment: they pushed for getting more (adulation, benefits) for the demographic group they represent, which is still only 13% of the population. If we are to be objective, that is not an "accomplishment" that really deserves academic attention on the same level as those who invented the cotton gin, or the internal combustion engine, or computers.
From my own experience, plus what I've heard from relatives with kids recently in school (in both AP and non-AP history classes), non-AP students continue to hear a LOT more about the history of African-Americans (who constitute only about 13% of the American population) than AP students do. Think about it: which courses are more likely to spend most of their class time pushing the "idolization of minorities" views of those currently in power, rather than imparting actual knowledge that will be needed for very intensive testing in the legal and governmental development of America? Fact is, you don't have TIME to waste reinforcing the prevailing social agenda, when you're trying to get students to pass rigorous tests that can save them up to a year's college tuition.
For those not familiar, "AP" is the acronym "Advanced Placement," meaning you can be granted college credits in lieu of taking certain college course(s), if your tested knowledge in the subject(s) was either sufficient (for those colleges accepting a score of "3" to get credit), or superior (for those more demanding colleges that required a score of "4" to get credit). All colleges give credit for a score of 4 or 5. The AP history tests aren't just about trivia knowledge; if you knew all the necessary trivia and dates, it was the essays that largely determined whether you got a score of 4 or 5. In my AP history class I was one of the two who scored 5 (4 other students scored 4, and the other person in the class scored a 3), which was a common distribution for the approximately 5% of high school students that then took the AP American History course that prepared you for the exam.
And while the AP tests are certainly not immune to reflecting the social propaganda of our times, they do NOT waste many test questions on the "gimme" questions that every student (AP or non-AP) knows to answer in PC manner. To illustrate how much the AP American History test is NOT about African-American history, check out the sub-topics, and the sample quizzes related to each sub-topic here: USQuizMainPAge
Two events in history which 99.9% of Americans don't know about.
1. In VA, or MD (cant remember which state) the Irish and African slaves/indentures had several rebellions against their English masters. In order to break this alliance, slavery became modified to become a race based, rather than status based system with blacks held as slaves in perpetuity, and deprived of legal rights as blacks.
2. In the South most of the sharecroppers were whites in the early 20th C. When a group of black and white sharecroppers attempted to jointly confront the system which exploited both, it was brutally crushed , with the whites persecuted as "communists", and "N" lovers. You have probably heard the expression "free, white, and over 21". Apparently even if one was dirt poor, at least they had "whiteness". Its without irony that the region in the USA with the worst legacy of racism, is also the one with the deepest levels of white poverty.
The Appalachians have some of the deepest levels of poverty with the highest levels of dependency on Federal support, and yet the vote for a party which reserves Federal assistance for wealthy landowners and for corporate loop holes. Just see the angst when the Feds talk about removing tax deductions for luxury vacation properties, jets, and yachts. Yet poor dirt farmers in WV endorse this.
Another great post and very informative. You're making me want to take an AA History course and I'm way beyond my college days! At the very least, gonna do some book shopping to find some interesting things to read...
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It will be great when poor whites wake up and realize they've been sold a dream.
