By guest blogger Jess
It’s that time again. The time where people say things like “Why do we have a black history month?” or “We don’t even need it anymore” I see Black History (as well as all minority history/heritage months) as a way of making up for what's still lacking at all other times. Minority culture is more often than not has a very desolate representation in our society and clearly isn’t fully integrated into mainstream culture or education. While I do sort of see those months as a “pacifier” to larger issues, it’s a good way to start but follow up is necessary. . When I was growing up I hardly ever learned about black people in history. When we did talk about slavery or black people in general it was definitely watered down and made to seem as if it wasn't that bad or not as important as the rest. I was fortunate enough to have parents that really taught me things about my history that were not taught in class. We may be making progress in those terms (and even that's debatable), but we're just not there yet. I came across a video last week and I think this is one of the reasons that I was thinking about this particular subject.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XGeMy-6hnr0
I’m curious what do you think about this video? Our curriculum needs to change when our college population is this ignorant. Like I said we made a dent but we aren't there yet.
I saw this same video a few weeks ago. After my initial shock, I thought about it more and wasn't as shocked. I am aware that people are still very ignorant about history and culture. That school is located in southern Utah and as of Fall 2010, the school had 176 African American students out of its total student population of 30,000. Only 14% of the student population were "minorities" (http://yfacts.byu.edu/viewarticle.aspx?id=135). Considering this lack of diversity, I'm not too surprised by the students' responses. You only know what you're exposed to, and in addition to lack of exposure to diversity, there is evidence of a lack of education on history. That still does not make the ignorance displayed acceptable. In this case, there is an obvious lack of education on the contributions, achievements, struggles of African Americans in history. As evidenced by the video, both White and African American students didn't know much about "Black history" (which is American history) and the purpose of Black History Month. For all we know, the same students may not know much about American history, in general lol. The students interviewed in this video just serve as a microcosm of a larger population of Americans. We still have a lot to learn about our own history.
ReplyDeleteI agree, there is a lot to learn still! I wasn't really shocked by the video either. I grew up in Arizona where,when I was growing up, there is a very low African American population outside of the air force base area. I was more saddened by the video. I am also sad because a lot of people try to say that they get enough education about black history and there is no need for a month dedicated to honor that history. It is that ignorance that saddened me. We simply aren't there yet and while there has been progress (for example in Arizona MLK Day wasn't recognized for many years at first) there is a lot further to go.
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