The Uninformative Black History Month

February marks the beginning of Black history month in the US and the holiday continues until the last day of February. The holiday started as Negro History Week in 1926 introduced by Carter G Woodson and ASALH, then expanded to Black History Month in 1976. In honor to the ethnicity and reflect on a significant portion of U.S. history. The negative part about Black history month is that it's misconstrued as segregation and provides limits to the culture. The positive part is that the ethnic culture is nationally acknowledged which demonstrates a form of empathy and respect.

Instead of being taught about the very people who built this entire country year around, businesses including Google and the educational system choose to inform people actively during this 1 month time frame. I vividly recall everyday during this month, learning about a black person and their impact to the country, during the morning announcements. Great, right? No, there are 28 sometimes 29 days in February, so that's equivalent to saying the Black Americans history can be summed up with an average of 29 people. Honestly I can name the people who are often repeatedly spoken on during the month. I believe that these limits have done more damage than good to the culture. Most people do not surpass the knowledge provided to them during this month, ultimately causing insecurities, division, and overall ignorance. The way history is provided to all Americans about blacks always begins from slavery. As if the harsh encounters of slavery were the only significance of the culture. Planting inside the young blacks head that your power is always limited no matter how powerful you become. Basically setting a hierarchy, a chain of command based on melanin. Causing racial tensions because   the young blacks are instilled with this small insecurity and other ethnicities are instilled with small feelings hate and arrogance. After we're taught about American slavery we're lead into the civil rights movement that dominates the rest of the month, which is suppose to give Blacks our sense of empowerment and overcome those small insecurities. This is great yes, because during this point we're learning about how unity forces changes and uplifting one another instead of using our hate mechanism that everyone has. However those two sections of history don’t cover even 50% of Blacks history, but sense we're given this month barriers of extension to the knowledge are placed. No I'm not saying that we're only allowed to talk about black history during this month, but that most people only discuss the history during this month. If we were celebrated and acknowledged year around Americans would know so much more about the impact Blacks and other ethnicities also. 

 

The reality is that many people are instilled with a false arrogance, meaning they feel a sense of entitlement, like they're "better" than other ethnicity because of the way history is displayed.  At the peak of black slavery in the South, only 6 percent of Southern whites owned slaves. If you include the white people in the North, it means that only 1.4 percent of white Americans owned black slaves at the HEIGHT of slavery. An estimated 3,000 blacks owned a total of 20,000 black slaves in the year 1860. So out of 100% of the population 7% of whites were slave owners. Slavery controlled the world because it was the biggest profit, free labor maintaining major factories, so slavery was a business. The other whites 93% of whites who were in America during this time were also slaves or workers. Who were also disgraced by the 7%. So in actuality there should've never been any division between races because we all were being mistreated. However the tool racism was implemented in order to remain control over all of these people. A slave owner did not hang or beat the slaves, his workers the un-wealthy whites did. This ultimately contributes to society’s racial tensions and barriers. In a nutshell people who were poor and unaccepted beat others who were poor and mistreated in order to keep the power in the rich and powerful person's hand who affects the entire society and generations to come

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The fact is large numbers of free Negroes owned black slaves; in fact, in numbers disproportionate to their representation in society at large. We fail to acknowledge that black slavery owner proves we were not only slaves and that there is still unknown history of our culture. Google and institutions would provide extensive knowledge on Harriet Tubman creating the Underground Railroad, and we'll quickly praise Nat Turner for his slave revolt, but never mention names like Antoine Dubuclet a Louisiana slave owner who was worth over 200 thousand dollars in 1860, equivalent to over 5 million dollars now. Granville T. Woods a largely self-educated man, he was awarded more than 60 patents. One of his most important inventions was a telegraph that allowed moving trains to communicate with other trains and train stations, thus improving railway efficiency and safety. Benjamin Bradley, a slave employed at a printing office and later at the Annapolis Naval Academy, where he helped set up scientific experiments. In the 1840s he developed a steam engine for a war ship. Unable to patent his work, he sold it and with the proceeds purchased his freedom.

The lack of knowledge like this is significant because it contributes to the ignorance of racism. That's simple lost history, without even scraping the surface of Africa's historic impact. Prior to the fall of Egypt, when Black Pharaohs like Akhenaton and Queens reigned. No we're taught only about being enslaved, the civil war, and civil rights. Causing people to devalue black’s significance including black people. 

Black history month is far from a "bad" thing, because ultimately we're providing a form of respect to a culture that should be respected. We are taking the time to show our development as a society, by attempting to acknowledge our faults in order to surpass them. I am not discrediting any of our black heroes who are familiar to us, because we definitely need to know how great their influences is, but simply that there's more to history than what is presented to us. Since we’re going to dedicate an entire month of history to a specific ethnic cultural group, than why not display all of their cultural history. Not only is the part of American history that associated with negative connotations.