Reflection on Black History Month
Postage stamps released in commemmoration of USA Black Heritage. (www.hull.ac.uk)
by Ishanose Omofoma
OKWUeagle.com Staff Writer
This month, we join together once again in celebrating Black History Month. But what is Black History month really, and what does it mean?
To many African-Americans, it is more than a time of celebration. For many, it has become a time of reflection, a simple remembrance of where we have been, where we are, and where we are going.
We reflect on great heroes such as Martin Luther King Jr., who fought a war not only on the brutal streets of the south, but a war raging in his soul for true freedom, for real peace, but above all, a fight for love; a love that he knew would prevail through any darkness.
We remember Malcolm X; a man who believed that this world needed more than words to understand and to hear. That blacks were not animals, but simply people wanting to live in equality. He was a man on fire, and a man wanting the world not only to see this raging fire, but to feel it.
To other African-Americans, it is a time that brings mixed feelings. Although many blacks see this month as a time to be proud of where they have come, it has also become a rude reminder of the hyphen that divides a black-American, from a white-American.
A hyphen, that punctuation used to make two words one is ironically seen as a divide, a separation between what we feel we are labeled as and what we know we are.
Curtis Scipio, an Oklahoma Wesleyan University graduate, and an African-American native to Houston, TX has nothing but pride for his heritage but responds to Black History month with a bit of apathy.
“I don’t like [Black History] month. I love all the accomplishments and achievements of our people, but how long will we accept “Black History” Month?” Scipio asks. “We are a part of American History.”
“From the earliest we can attend school, we are taught in an education system which is dominated by white males in every subject. Then when things are added, it’s looked at like, “look what this black person did.” We have to squeeze all of our culture into the shortest month…” Scipio finished.
Black history is American history. In a country that fights to be politically correct, we find that in the very phrase that was intended to be inclusive has caused some blacks become calloused.
A simple hyphen meant to describe who we are has become a symbol for the very thing that resembles division. Blacks desire not to be seen as African- Americans, but simply as Americans.
Ben Rotz, Assistant Vise President for Student Development at OKWU, and a white man, sees this month for what it was, but also for what it is for all people.
“To me, black history month isn’t about one race or the other, or slavery, it’s about the human spirit’s ability to prevail in the face of inequality and oppression,” Rotz said. “For me, its not really an issue of race.”
“People like Dr. King who exhibited such strength to prevail through blatant disregard and persecution is a portrait of the strength of humanity to prevail through darkness,” Rotz said.
I could not agree more. Black History Month is a time of “remembrance” as Caleb Gentles, an African-American Junior at OKWU, puts it.
What happens when we take a deeper look at Black History Month? Not just black people, but all people.
We learn to see that the history of blacks affected and still affects people of all races. This month is not just for blacks, but for you and me.
It is a time for us to stand and be proud of many of the hurdles this country has overcome, and also a time for us to come together and be reminded of the obstacles that still lay before us.
Black History Month is a time for celebrating and reflecting on where black people have been and remembering those who affected the coarse of the future that has allowed this country to stand where we do today.
It is also a time for all people to be reminded that the barriers that were broken, the lines that have been erased, were removed not only for African-Americans, but for all people of all ethnicities and races.
Words spoken generations ago still hold true:
“There should be no “Negro History Corner” or “Negro History Week.” There should be an integration of African American culture in all of its diversity throughout the curriculum,” Roy Wilkins, Civil Rights Activist (1930’s -1970’s).
