Can't wait for the controversy here: Black History Month

[RonSwanson]

Do african-americans not feel insulted by this notion? I mean, one month is dedicated to the effects of MLK, Malcolm X and all other Civil Rights Movements, so what happens to the other 11 months? Are we supposed to not recognize the rest? It just seems ridiculous to me. How can we express equality when this ish is still present? I dunno know, if I was african-american I'd feel disrespected.

Serious discussion only please

[Budadiiii]

"The precursor to Black History Month was created in 1926 in the United States, when historian Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History announced the second week of February to be "Negro History Week."

http://rainiernew.wpengine.com/yurts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/01/The_more_you_know_banner.jpg

[L.Kizzle]

Do african-americans not feel insulted by this notion? I mean, one month is dedicated to the effects of MLK, Malcolm X and all other Civil Rights Movements, so what happens to the other 11 months? Are we supposed to not recognize the rest? It just seems ridiculous to me. How can we express equality when this ish is still present? I dunno know, if I was african-american I'd feel disrespected.

Serious discussion only please
And with so many entertainment events going on in the month, who even remembers Black History Month.

NFL Super Bowl
Grammy Awards
Valentines Day
NBA All-Star Weekend
NHL All-Star Weekend
Daytona 500
Academy Awards

[RonSwanson]

And with so many entertainment events going on in the month, who even remembers Black History Month.

NFL Super Bowl
Grammy Awards
NBA All-Star Weekend
NHL All-Star Weekend
Daytona 500
Academy Awards

:biggums:

What does that have to with anything?

[BasedTom]

And with so many entertainment events going on in the month, who even remembers Black History Month.

NFL Super Bowl
Grammy Awards
NBA All-Star Weekend
NHL All-Star Weekend
Daytona 500
Academy Awards
The Super Bowl is honestly the only one that matters to most people.

Yeah people enjoy all star weekends, but it isn't like you can go up to a random old guy waiting for the bus and say "who's getting that ASG MVP?!"

award shows are dumb unless somebody like kanye does something stupid. Nobody's going to think "Well there was no way I was going to watch American Sniper, but now that it has this award, I gotz to see it"

nascar is irrelevant

[BasedTom]

a month is ridiculous anyway when Jesus only gets like 3 days out of the year

[RonSwanson]

a month is ridiculous anyway when Jesus only gets like 3 days out of the year

Don't you mean like 40 + Christmas?

[L.Kizzle]

:biggums:

What does that have to with anything?
Hey lets talk about deflate-gate ...
Hey lets talk about Kanye and Beck ...
Hey lets talk about (also, forgot to add Valentines day ...)
Hey lets talk about whatever happens at All-Star Weekend this week
Next week, who got snubbed out an Oscar

Month is over.

[L.Kizzle]

a month is ridiculous anyway when Jesus only gets like 3 days out of the year
Don't you mean like everyday?

[KNOW1EDGE]

I don't get it.

Whites have no "White history month" and before you say "every month is white history month" it's not, there is no white history month.

Companies like Nike (and subsequently Adidas copied them) do BHM shoes every year and a line of clothing. Nike hosts a "Sneakerball" in Portland celebrating BHM.

We got BET, NAACP, United Negro College fund etc etc
America bends over backwards for blacks like no other race.

I don't get what your beef is? Black history month isn't good enough? I'm seriously confused

[Patrick Chewing]

Reparations!

[BasedTom]

seriously, if there's a black history month, then there should be "Year of the Germans" "Year of the Italians" "Year of the Chinese" "Year of the Turks" "Year of the Ethiopians" "Year of the Russians" etc

[bdreason]

Shortest month of the year. When will the oppression end?

[L.Kizzle]

I don't get it.

Whites have no "White history month" and before you say "every month is white history month" it's not, there is no white history month.

Companies like Nike (and subsequently Adidas copied them) do BHM shoes every year and a line of clothing. Nike hosts a "Sneakerball" in Portland celebrating BHM.

We got BET, NAACP, United Negro College fund etc etc
America bends over backwards for blacks like no other race.

I don't get what your beef is? Black history month isn't good enough? I'm seriously confused
White made the country the way it is now, like it or not. If whites weren't acting a dam fool towards people who don't look like them, there would be on BET, NAACP, ect.

Also, every month is White History Month. Sorry, it just is. I was in grade school just a few years ago and the only time we learned about Blacks was during February. Other than that, we're learning about 15th Centenary English settlers, Pilgrims and Edgar Alan Poe.

And the reason there was a NAACP was because people of color (Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, ects) were not getting recognized.

BET is just black programing. People always bring up why is there a BET. Have never seen a "Why is there a Telumundo?" People like to see and hear people that look like them.

[Patrick Chewing]

White made the country the way it is now, like it or not. If whites weren't acting a dam fool towards people who don't look like them, there would be on BET, NAACP, ect.

Also, every month is White History Month. Sorry, it just is. I was in grade school just a few years ago and the only time we learned about Blacks was during February. Other than that, we're learning about 15th Centenary English settlers, Pilgrims and Edgar Alan Poe.

And the reason there was a NAACP was because people of color (Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, ects) were not getting recognized.

BET is just black programing. People always bring up why is there a BET. Have never seen a "Why is there a Telumundo?" People like to see and hear people that look like them.


White Europeans built America and you wonder why you're learning about white settlers, and authors? I wonder how many Anglo-Saxon months they have in Africa??

And this is coming from a Latino who thinks it's ridiculous that a certain race needs a month in the year to be recognized for. Let's focus more on unification than separation based on months that alienate us.

[KNOW1EDGE]

Can you post a link to Nikes White History Month shoes? I'd like to buy some.

Could you post a link to a calendar showing "White History Month"?

That argument is prob the stupidest sh1t I hear on a regular basis. "Every month is white history month" -No, no it is not. Maybe in your woe is me poor black man mind, but in reality, no, there is no white history month.

The attitude of many, many blacks in America is quite pathetic. Blame "the white man" and call everything racism. It's old and played out. It's just an excuse for blacks to not better themselves.

[L.Kizzle]

White Europeans built America and you wonder why you're learning about white settlers, and authors? I wonder how many Anglo-Saxon months they have in Africa??

And this coming from a Latino who thinks it's ridiculous that a certain race needs a month in the year to be recognized for.
True.

I never cared for Black History Month anyway. I mean, don't just teach kids about black people only for that month. Everything should be equal.

[BasedTom]

White made the country the way it is now, like it or not. If whites weren't acting a dam fool towards people who don't look like them, there would be on BET, NAACP, ect.

Also, every month is White History Month. Sorry, it just is. I was in grade school just a few years ago and the only time we learned about Blacks was during February. Other than that, we're learning about 15th Centenary English settlers, Pilgrims and Edgar Alan Poe.

And the reason there was a NAACP was because people of color (Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, ects) were not getting recognized.

BET is just black programing. People always bring up why is there a BET. Have never seen a "Why is there a Telumundo?" People like to see and hear people that look like them.
Question: when did you graduate?

Because the education system in most western countries these days hammers out a ton of white guilt stuff, celebrates diversity, points out the contributions of blacks, women- which is nice and all, but then most american kids can't locate poland on a map, don't know who Napoleon was besides some midget, think the pyramids were built by reptilian-aliens...

[KNOW1EDGE]

America needs more Martins, problem is most young black males want to be Malcoms.

[L.Kizzle]

Question: when did you graduate?

Because the education system in most western countries these days hammers out a ton of white guilt stuff, celebrates diversity, points out the contributions of blacks, women- which is nice and all, but then most american kids can't locate poland on a map, don't know who Napoleon was besides some midget, think the pyramids were built by reptilian-aliens...
I'm only 27. I remember learning about Columbus a lot. Hell, I still remember the song they made us learn, lol. In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue..

[BasedTom]

True.

I never cared for Black History Month anyway. I mean, don't just teach kids about black people only for that month. Everything should be equal.
The real crime is that they only learn about the bad shit. There's more to black people than picking cotton and negro-spirituals in The South, or starving to death, but you wouldn't know about that if all you were exposed to was TV

[L.Kizzle]

America needs more Martins, problem is most young black males want to be Malcoms.
It's nothing wrong with Malcolm, as long as you take in his complete teachings. Some people just want to learn a part of something and not the whole thing and run with that.

[longtime lurker]

I don't get it.

Whites have no "White history month" and before you say "every month is white history month" it's not, there is no white history month.

Companies like Nike (and subsequently Adidas copied them) do BHM shoes every year and a line of clothing. Nike hosts a "Sneakerball" in Portland celebrating BHM.

We got BET, NAACP, United Negro College fund etc etc
America bends over backwards for blacks like no other race.

I don't get what your beef is? Black history month isn't good enough? I'm seriously confused

You really seem upset over shoes

[Nowitness]

We really need a Jewish history month.

Gay history month.

Female history month.

Working/Lower class history month.

Atheist history month.

All of these people have been oppressed just like blacks.

The white, 'straight', middle-class, Christian man is the only group to never have trouble. Either we all get a month or blacks can protest their own.

[Demon Lizard]

"Let's give them the shortest month"

[L.Kizzle]

You really seem upset over shoes
Dirk and Nash with Nike?

[Dresta]

:facepalm

This is just offensive in so many ways.

[Patrick Chewing]

I think I posed this question a few years back, maybe on a different forum, but at what point do we as a country realize that rehashing the past does nothing to improve and sustain our future?

Yes, we learn from our past, but the world is too big and we're evolving at such a rapid rate that if we do not get past labels, we will always be labeled and be left behind and use our past as a crutch.

What's more important? Being black? Or being an American? I pose that question to our African brothers on the board and I would ask them to think about the question for a little while before they answer me back. To me, being an American before anything else means that I'm equal to everyone else in this country, and I'm not separated by a label (in my case, Latino). I rather be included than excluded and there's two sides to every coin, case and point, "Black History Month". While it excludes me because I'm Latino, it also excludes blacks from every other month. Again, we're focusing on material things, labels, etc.

I'm a die-hard baseball fan, but will we be celebrating Jackie Robinson day 100 years from now? No one from that era would be alive by then to tell us about him or his struggles. Should we still be honoring him even though sports, even today, is dominated by blacks?

I think events like these only do us more harm instead of teach us how to move forward. Also, I'm not saying that we should ignore our cultures and histories, but we also have to understand that the only way for a society to thrive is to be thought of as equals and not limited to skin color.

[Jailblazers7]

a month is ridiculous anyway when Jesus only gets like 3 days out of the year

Jesus gets 1 day every week.

[BasedTom]

Jesus gets 1 day every week.
jesus isn't in the NFL last time I checked

[Jailblazers7]

jesus isn't in the NFL last time I checked

Wrong.

http://dy.snimg.com/story-image/1/38/235166/235166-650-366.jpg

[GimmeThat]

People still do the museum type stuff?

[~primetime~]

I kinda feel like Black History Month should go away...

Black History = American History...it should be all year, along with Native American History and White (Euro) History and not just one month


That said, who gives a fck...it's not like it affects anyone's lives. No one of any race should be that offended, it's a very minor issue

[Jailblazers7]

We have a breast cancer awareness month where every sport wears pink so I think its ok if we celebrate black history for the shortest month of the year.

[Dresta]

We have a breast cancer awareness month where every sport wears pink so I think its ok if we celebrate black history for the shortest month of the year.
That's just another thing we shouldn't have. Other, far more fatal cancers, are massively underfunded, and breast cancer massively overfunded - the absurd emphasis given to this cancer is part of that problem: breasts will always be an easy sell.


I just deplore this thing on so many levels:
1. Exclusive to other minorities (it's not like the Irish were treated well, in fact, in the lead up to civil war northerners seemed to hate Catholics as much as southerners hated blacks).
2. Patronising to blacks (at least, i would feel patronised if i were black, as this is a weak and pathetic hand-me-down).
3. Divisive (no explanation needed)
4. Conformist (celebrate whatever the hell you want)
5. Stupid (black history in America cannot simply be separated from American history - they are tightly interwoven - ergo, 'black history month' shouldn't be any different from 'history month'). The sooner white and black people stop viewing the latter as 'other' and in need of special distinctions of their own, and which divide them from the rest of the nation, the sooner race relations in this country will heal.
6. Cannot stand these state-plugged 'celebrations' either


Christmas is much worse tho

[~primetime~]

Dresta, what holidays/celebrations/etc do you not "deplore"?

[Dresta]

None: I dislike ritualistic celebrations as a rule.

[knickballer]

None of these months have any significance. Black History, Hispanic, Breast Cancer Awareness, i'm sure eventually there's gonna be a LGBT awareness month and a disenfranchised youth living in Urban America month too.

People just need to understand that these months are just designed for political correctness and trying to not to offend people who feel like they are being discriminated against(Like a title on a month will change that...)

[JustinJDW]

I don't get it.

Whites have no "White history month" and before you say "every month is white history month" it's not, there is no white history month.

Companies like Nike (and subsequently Adidas copied them) do BHM shoes every year and a line of clothing. Nike hosts a "Sneakerball" in Portland celebrating BHM.

We got BET, NAACP, United Negro College fund etc etc
America bends over backwards for blacks like no other race.

I don't get what your beef is? Black history month isn't good enough? I'm seriously confusedNot trying to insult you but you need to look at the big picture here. The problem is deep-rooted subconscious and institutionalised racism in America. The "beef" that exist is that black people every day in this country get stopped, questioned and sometimes even frisked in scenarios where if the individual were white, he would have not. That is wrong, and if you honestly think that doesn't happen in this country, you're sorely mistaken and a fool.

All the Portland basketball shows and Nike shoe deals in the world does not compensate for generations of racial profiling. Let's get real. All that literally means absolutely nothing.

[ace23]

We really need a Jewish history month.

Gay history month.

Female history month.

Working/Lower class history month.

Atheist history month.

All of these people have been oppressed just like blacks.

Pretty sure most of these actually already exist.