My New Black History Month Agenda

I'm one of those people who wonder whether the idea of Black History Month is actually counter-productive. Like maybe it sends a message that it's O.K. to minimalize the positive historical contributions of black people to the development of this nation by relegating the contemplation of those contributions to the shortest month of the year. Black History Month is another target of those progressive Black and white folks who like to say look at how far we have gone. Why are we still complaining when we have our own month, a national holiday for the modern-day Moses of Black folks, and Affirmative Action? I won't even get on that horse.

Well The Nation has finally given me something positive and constructive to do during Black History Month. Something I can really sink my teeth into and get excited about. White History 101. Columnist Gary Younge hits the nail on the head with his analysis of history.

The very notion of black and white history is both a theoretical nonsense and a practical necessity. There is no scientific or biological basis for race. It is a construct to explain the gruesome reality that racism built. But, logic suggests, you cannot have black history without white history. Of course, the trouble is not that we do not hear enough about white history but that what masquerades as history is more akin to mythology. The contradictions of how a "free world" could be founded on genocide, or how the battle for democracy during the Second World War could coincide with Japanese internment and segregation, for example, are rarely addressed.

And,

The purpose here is not to explore individual guilt--there are therapists for that--but collective responsibility. When it comes to excelling at military conflict, everyone lays claim to their national identity; people will say, "We won World War II." By contrast, those who say "we" raped black slaves, massacred Indians or excluded Jews from higher education are hard to come by. You cannot, it appears, hold anyone responsible for what their ancestors did that was bad or the privileges they enjoy as a result. Whoever it was, it definitely wasn't "us." This is one more version of white flight--a dash from the inconveniences bequeathed by inequality.
So we do not need more white history, we need it better told.

Therefore I resolve to dedicate the remainder of this Black History Month and all subsequent Black History months to the promulgation and edification of White History 101. I think that's the best thing any of us could do to promote the ideals and goals that led to the creation of Black History month in the first place.