BFIB
Member
I'm in total agreement with this statement.
When is white history month?
- Thread starter Slayven
- Start date
- Status
I'm in total agreement with this statement.
blame space
Banned
garth brooks was cool
staticneuron
Member
I am really trying to figure out the point you are getting at here and I am drawing blanks. Care to explain?
Horse Detective
Why the long case?
If there was a White History month, when would it be, before Black History Month, or after?
Hero_of_the_Day
Member
The fact this thread has made it four pages without a banning amazes me. Good job GAF.
Good Job Bob
Member
It's weird; it's not as if Black History month is in anyway promoting awareness about "central African civilizations and their relation to early America".
Why you laughing? White people invented all kinds of cool shit like country music, nascar, and sweater vests. We must have a month to celebrate these revolutionary inventions.
I always find these sites listing dumb twitter messages hilarious, this is certainly no exception. Country music, lol.
Which major central African civilizations were there? I'm trying to think of some, and my history knowledge is completely failing me. I can think of West African civilizations (Mali for instance), North African civilizations (Ancient Egypt for example), East African civilizations (Ethiopia amongst others) and even South African civilizations (Zimbabwe), but I struggle to think of any Central African civilizations. I'm also not sure whether they would have had any direct contact with early America, given how long it took Europeans to reach the African interior.
Which major central African civilizations were there? I'm trying to think of some, and my history knowledge is completely failing me. I can think of West African civilizations (Mali for instance), North African civilizations (Ancient Egypt for example), East African civilizations (Ethiopia amongst others) and even South African civilizations (Zimbabwe), but I struggle to think of any Central African civilizations. I'm also not sure whether they would have had any direct contact with early America, given how long it took Europeans to reach the African interior.
Trigger Warning
Member
.
Months to remember history of those who are often ignored in history books is important. The other history months should get more attention though.
Good Job Bob
Member
Why not channel all the effort and energy it takes to spread awareness throughout the month of February into ensuring that Black history is properly integrated into history books and education; an action that will have far more long-term impact than a single month of "awareness".
FantasticMrFoxdie
Mumber
Too bad its not "Link Your Links in the OP Month".
reggieandTFE
Member
MLK was a crazy class warrior. He was organizing a "Poor Peoples' March" on Washington when he died. All that Coca-Cola advertising has really diluted what he stood for...
It would be worth it but people have gotten used to that being the way things are done now. Plus, history books have never been to good at putting in the histories of minorities in America. Black history month is a nice change from the typical viewpoint.
Then again Black History Month doesn't seem to help with that much, lots of kids are completely clueless about anything Black American's have done outside of George Washington Carver and MLK.
Good Job Bob
Member
That's probably because Black history has been relegated to a month of awareness.
Joel Was Right
Member
Every time the politics of race is brought up I think of this
PumpkinPie
Banned
Get out of here with that sensible and logical bullshit!
Seriously, I agree with you completely. The only purpose things like this serve is to build barriers between races.
Roger Danish
Member
Oh dear, didn't realize you felt that way! Well, you heard the man, folks. "Black History Month" will henceforth be "Black History Day."
inb4 "When is white history day???"
I prefer a visible barrier to an invisible one.
Black history does come up from time to time in text books though but it's mostly just a shoved in-between two things and seems less important than it actually is/was as a result. It's the same issue women end up having in history books.
Parallax
best seen in the classic "Shadow of the Beast"
except that the barriers existed long before black history month was even thought of.
Good Job Bob
Member
Should we not be making efforts to improve these issues? Is national history awareness months not an attempt (I say attempt because they barely achieve their goal) at a short-term solution for a long-term problem?
I think its only purpose is to give closet racist or people who have some resentment towards blacks something to complain about. It doesn't build barriers it just causes people to expose their resentment.
Good Job Bob
Member
So in your opinion the only purpose of Black History Month is to weed out racists? That can't be right lol.
Joel Was Right
Member
As others have already said, Black History month and other similar calendar dates are a consequence of school curriculums lacking in their material relating to the background of minorities. As society increasingly becomes more multicultural, the greater the need for children to recognise and value the history of all. The fact that so many (in particular) young kids are tweeting their bewilderment for the reasoning for dates like BHM suggest schools are not doing enough to explain the context.
PumpkinPie
Banned
They will never disappear then.
EDIT: Oh god, a shitstorm is brewing in the black culture thread. I'm bailing the fuck out, I forgot what happens with race threads on NeoGAF.
That's not my opinion.
Good Job Bob
Member
So, not only does Black History Month outright fail at what it's trying to achieve; it fails to address the core issue which is education?
Parallax
best seen in the classic "Shadow of the Beast"
what the hell are you talking about?
I think school systems are, I work in an elementary school and I've noticed more books on the shelves about famous people who weren't white men than when I was a kid. It's just a very slow process to change the way books have been written for decades especially when texts books don't get completely rewritten too often.
Black History Month shouldn't have to be around but it's good to have a a bit more focus on it for a month until the curriculum gets completely overhauled.
No idea.
Good Job Bob
Member
Fair enough, but I still think that all the effort put into BHM would be much better served at addressing the core issue.
Oh man.
So what is black history month? Does it just involve slavery to now or ancient african empires and stuff?
Because white people alive today should be blamed for what white people did ages ago? If that's the case then when can we white people start blaming africans for killing our neanderthal ancestors?
Because white people alive today should be blamed for what white people did ages ago? If that's the case then when can we white people start blaming africans for killing our neanderthal ancestors?
Joel Was Right
Member
If suggests that we may need to extended it to several months instead of one just to explain the reason. Actually, this relates to another topic that is also controversial
Good Job Bob
Member
Or we could, you know, attack the core problem instead of relegating awareness to month(s).
Also, what would you call those group of months? African-American History Awareness Months? What happens when those fail? Make every year African-American Awareness Year? What about the other XXXX History Awareness Months?
Awareness Months are inherently flawed "solutions".
The core issue is being addressed. The problem is it will take quite awhile to get to a point where Black History Month, and similar months are no longer required. The problem is it's hard to integrate something different into classrooms when the curriculum has -- almost --completely ignored it for ages.
But until that happens spending 10 or 20 minutes a day focusing only on Black history for 20 school days isn't too bad. During BHM they still teach from the regular (textbook) curriculum after all.
Edit: It isn't an either or type of problem and school systems are trying to integrate the histories of minorities into everyday classes.
The Jason
Member
Looks like you need to brush up on your black history. The same philosophy that gave white people the right to treat blacks (the minority at the time) like sub-human-beings is still alive today. So yes those who think in a similar manner should be aware of their history, and the ramifications of such.
Yes it's alive today also among black people who look down on white people as inferior.
Roger Danish
Member
Troll confirmed.
He asked because of this:
How much history can you learn that isn't either high-school level or fed through a documentary? Even documentaries are extremely cursory in regards to the topic at hand and most history knowledge of any layman is usually relegated to "Great Man" history (or "easy" history like 20th Century world wars and Classical Civs).
I sorta hate how ivory tower history academia is but if you do delve into it, academics do fantastic research into many different histories of different ethnicities and pretty much anything you can think of. Problem with that is getting that knowledge out to the public, since most discussions of any higher level history is way too erudite for anyone who has no interest in it.
Even history majors may not even take courses on African history. And by African I mean not counting North Africa because a large part of that history is strongly intertwined with other histories (European, Arab, etc.). I am a history major and frankly I did not even take any (sub-Saharan) African history courses.
I believe that white people, as an ethnic group, deserve to be honored as much as any other. They've really been rocking it hard since The Rennaisance. Seriously.
But I have a stronger belief that historical portrayal should always be human-centric and not race-centric. So, fuck the "My Race is Awesome" Months.
But I have a stronger belief that historical portrayal should always be human-centric and not race-centric. So, fuck the "My Race is Awesome" Months.
To be fair, this isn't about assigning blame and it's not just because of slavery. People of African descent are still oppressed today.
LMAO
you know what, fuck this thread.
damn that's nice
Junior Member
white people
Good Job Bob
Member
The core issue isn't being addressed as hard as Black History Month is pushed, and it is an either or type of problem; alot of people will tell you that their schools would just wait until BHM to teach about African-American history and be done with it. That alone is a good reason BHM needs to be abolished and the core issue needs to be addressed directly with the same amount of effort BHM has.
People who think terrible things should definitely be aware of the ramifications of such ignorant thoughts; I fail to see what BHM has to do with this however.
Do you honestly think racists who view Black people as sub-humans give a shit about BHM?
Roger Danish
Member
How does "Black History Month" = "My Race is Awesome" Month?
Are you saying black supremecy does not exist?
There's plenty of people that are oppressed. Even african people by other africans.
Parallax
best seen in the classic "Shadow of the Beast"
white people deserved to be honored as any other? my race is awesome? would you mind explaining more?
Ok?
- Status