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Blogs The Trouble With Black History Month by Nolan L. Cabrera | The Trouble With Black History Month by Nolan L. Cabrera |
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| Written by Foresight | |
| Friday, 25 January 2008 | |
  This is why the western pioneers are celebrated as heroes despite the fact they were stealing land from the natives already on the land. The founding fathers are framed as revolutionary vanguards of democracy and social equality despite being slave owners who denied women the right to vote. This “White makes right” version of history is precisely the reason that it is necessary to explicitly celebrate Black history, however, it is incredibly misused. This time of year, children in the vanilla suburbs line up in class to recite “I Have a Dream”, but the true meaning of Dr. King’s words is frequently lost on the speaker. Dr. King was a radical leader of a progressive social movement who scared the establishment so much he had an extensive FBI file. This was not someone embraced by the masses, but today, everyone and their mother claims to either have marched with him or be the descendent of someone who did. People forget Dr. King was not only hated by Southern segregationists, but he was also demonized by mainstream society as well. After giving his “Beyond Vietnam: Time to Break the Silence” where he severely criticized U.S. involvement in the war, Time responded by calling Dr. King’s beautiful oration “demagogic slander that sounded like a script for Radio Hanoi.” This same sentiment has contemporarily been repeated to silence dissent. Rather than using Black History Month as a means of critically analyzing where additional progress needs to be made (remember the Jena 6?), it has becomes an excuse for social complacency. For example, Lou Dobbs’ was on CNN’s The Situation Room, and gave an MLK holiday commentary on “socio-ethnocentric special interests” that he thinks are destroying this country. He specifically used the legacy of this civil rights leader to demonize contemporary civil rights struggles despite the fact that if Dr. King was alive today, he would probably be one of those people included in the umbrella of socio-ethnocentric special interests. So more appropriately, my problem is not with Black History Month, but rather with the misuses of it that seek to justify the status quo. Frederick Douglass said, “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” In a less often quoted part of the same speech, he said, “Those who profess to favor freedom, yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing the soil.” Students of history are mistakenly taught they can achieve racial equality in the absence of social unrest. Therefore, those people taking to the streets, marching, writing petitions, organizing, and unionizing are viewed as “unnecessarily” stirring up controversy. By proactively opposing any number of social policies and political platforms that are explicitly race-conscious, the masses are yearning for racial equity without making any sacrifices. They profess to favor freedom only in the absence of social agitation, and nothing could be more quixotic.  Black History Month, first and foremost, needs to be an unpleasant reminder that we continue to live in a White supremacist society. To exclusively focus Black History Month to the celebration of Black achievements undermines the reason these accomplishments are so socially significant. Anything less leads to the continued tokenization of people of color and our history that explicitly limits the potential for racial progress. Comments
(11)
 written by Nico , January 25, 2008
Hey Nolan,
I agree with your very compelling post. I think its something that still gets pushed aside because the majority does not want to own up and be reminded of all the wrongs they caused. On a side note, I find it very sad that Black History has started to be portrayed with a lack of "culture". I had using that word but its the closest word I can find. What i mean by that is you will now see Black History month ads or other things which reference Hip-Hop. And although I love Hip-Hop, I think this shows the disconnect from their roots as African people. Maybe this is just the opinion of Native American whose culture still is strong, but it makes me a little sad to see.
@ Anthony Marquez: Anthony, I find your comment about lack of "culture" and black history month ads or other things which reference hip-hop very interesting. Can you elaborate some? What is the disconnect and what makes you sad? Thanks.
 written by cindylu , January 25, 2008
Right on, Nolan. I think another potential problem in celebrating Black History Month (and often other racial and ethnic history months) is how cultures get essentialized and made into simple caricatures. More troubling could be highlighting all the success stories while ignoring meaningful discussions for improving all the trouble spots and confronting racism. There needs to be a balance between the "look how far we've come" type of stories and the "there's still lots of work to do" stories. Unfortunately, the mainstream media only highlights the former and ignores the latter.
What I mean by the disconnect is that they have identified this hip hop culture to be a part of their culture. It is some sense a basis for their culture. However, these are people who once had such a rich culture that involve ceremonies, rituals, a native language, and other things. I guess this would be like me embracing reservation life, eating frybread, alcohol, powwows (when my tribe doesn't powwow), etc ... as my culture. When in reality my culture is my morning prayers, ceremonies, my native language, story telling, and all the great things that have been passed down for generations, not what society sees as what my people should do.
I hope that makes a bit more sense.
@ Anthony Marquez:
The four main aspects, or "elements", of hip hop culture are MCing (rapping), DJing, urban inspired art/tagging (graffiti), and b-boying (or breakdancing). The most known "extended" elements are beatboxing, hip hop fashion, hip hop slang. You are making a normative argument about the way some blacks equate "hip-hop culture" with black history month but there is a descriptive element to your argument. Meaning, you obviously have your own set of assumptions about what hip hop culture is or is not and how black people equate it to black history month. I think you are either not informed enough or dead wrong. From what I gather, you are talking about negative aspects of "rap music" such as the degrading of women, smoking, drinking, partying, "making it rain" at the strip club, going to prison, etc. If so, I believe you are wrong and are confusing two different sets of issues. The glorification of prison culture, misogyny, and anti-intellectualism are another set of issues in the black community that have nothing to do with how we celebrate black history month. Feel free to give me more clarification on what you meant. Thanks.
I agree with the point that Nolan is making about Black History Month. I think Black history month should not only be devoted to remembering the history of Black people in America, but also to show everyone the issues that still exist. I say this because i think the average person might be more receptive to this kind of social commentary in this month. I see it as an opportunity to open some people's eyes who live in a bubble and don't know about Black people's struggles today simply because they can't see them.
I think you got me wrong. What I'm talking about is just the fact that not enough acknoledgement is given to their African culture. No where did I say what I thought what hip-hop culture was. I know quite a bit about hip-hop, its origins from Disco in the seventies, how it provides social commentary, and more. Thats all great.
I only commented on my culture, and not really the negatives but what people see when they look at my people. that was all. maybe my reference to alcohol was why you thought I meant all the bad parts of our culture. but i just thought of things people associate with natives, good or bad.
If there is no struggle, there is certainly no progress. Great quote and point of reason to your post. I believe it important to support educators, such as ourselves (but even more importantly, K-12 educators) to remind the young and old alike of the importance and significance of BHM as a reminder of this true to life statement. Thanks for this, Nolan!
Nice work! I think you touch on some very salient points. I don't think we ask enough questions about the relevance of Black History Month. Nor do we engage in meaningful dialogue about the persistence of racism. There are so many directions to go with your piece hopefully you will continue to "agitate" the debate.
Nolan, this is a well written, concise argument for the need to embrace the heritage of social struggle instead of celebrating icons and memorizing speeches. I think asserting that we "continue to live in a White supremacist society" is exaggerated and your treatment of early White leaders and western pioneers is somewhat unfair. Does slave ownership negate their character to the point where we should ignore their other accomplishments? Being a whitey, those were my only two gripes, but I understand your point as well. The rest was interesting history that I was not entirely aware of, and I enjoyed your opinions on the issue. In general, I think you are like me and wish for a country in which informed political thinking and meaningful social action are standard traits of the average American rather than a rarity.
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I wonder how different celebrations such as these would be if people like Dr. King were still alive to lead. Good post.