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this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2023
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Every year I read interesting articles that spring up online and also are put out by my employer during black history month. It exposes me to viewpoints I might not chase down and expose myself to on my own. I come away from it feeling like I have a bit of a deeper understanding about how our country's past continues to impact the experiences of black people today in the US.
At no point have I felt excluded for being white, nor threatened by what has been shared. If you have been, that says way more about you than it does about black history month.
Right. Of course not. That's not the issue. The issue is that minority history months treat the minority history as something separate from 'normal' history. Instead minority histories should be taught as an indistinguishable part of the respective time period.
The fact that you didn't learn those new things in history when you were in school is the problem. That's where the solution and proper equity is to be found.
And this is an argument to fundamentally sacrifice the good on the altar of the perfect. Would it be better that minority positions, accomplishments, and experiences were taught as part of broader curriculums? Of course--but they're not. Doing away with Black History Month doesn't address that, because the alternative isn't a broader solution, but to simply do nothing. BHM is a bandaid, but if you rip off the bandaid, it's still a wound. With the bandaid there at least we're forced to acknowledge the wound.
Similarly, giving away cash in the form of loan forgiveness doesn't solve the problem of greed in upper education, but it does alleviate pain felt by an entire generation of working Americans. This is a perfect example of the problem: the fascists blocked the relief, and then what happened? Did we muscle down as a society and get to work on the difficult problems of moving higher education away from the current profit-motivated model? No, of course not. What happened instead? Right: Nothing happened. Tuition is still reprehensibly high. The only difference is that the last generation of borrowers continue to suffer, just like the next will.
The point is, BHM is not an alternative to systemic policy changes to address historic racism and other discrimination: it's a stopgap, and lobbying for its abandonment isn't lobbying for a societal pivot to more effective ways to address the problem. It's lobbying that black history not be taught at all.
Since that problem has not been fixed and is actively getting worse in recent years, I'm going to continue supporting Black History Month (and Pride Month, and and and...)
That's fine on it's own.
As long as it doesn't take away from fixing the actual problem. The way student loan forgiveness eclipsed trying to actually control higher education prices.
You come up with a solution to fixing the actual problem, I'm all ears.
Though if I'm completely candid, I find it a bit annoying that you've taken the time to wag your finger at me for this entire conversation over a problem that is arguably decades or even centuries old because I say I support and will continue to support black history month.
That’s a similar argument as “but ALL lives matter”. Nobody is saying black/queer/women history is separate from history. The month is there to highlight parts of history that would be forgotten otherwise, or that people feel convenient to ignore. We need to celebrate our differences, and adding a day/week/month to the calendar does it.
So you want schools... teaching.... "critical race theory"?
Yes? Probably? It depends a little on why you're using quotes. I assume you don't mean the literal academic theory. And instead mean some kind of more reasonable version, of what Republicans and conservatives seem to mean (and irrationally fear) when they use the term.