Black History Is More Than a Month-Long Celebration

By Harseerat Mann, Opinions Editor

CAITLYN SAMPLEY/The California Aggie

Black History Month started by Dr. Carter G. Woodson in 1926. Woodson and Association for the Study of African American Life and History chose the second week of February to be African American History Week. It was a week to remember important human beings and occasions celebrated within the history of the African diaspora.

Today, Black History Month is celebrated in the month of February in the United States and Canada. In places like Ireland, the UK, and the Netherlands, it is celebrated in the month of October. While Black history is beyond doubt worthy of celebration, a 28-day period diminishes the importance of African American contributions to society. Furthermore, schools and organizations use this month to merely echo the same tales of African American heroes and contributions that have ended up being repetitive over the years. Rarely are we taught about Black men and women making in an impact in our current society.

“There are now only three black CEOs on the Fortune 500 list, and only 5 percent of major newsroom reporters are black. And while they have nearly 70 percent of black players, the National Football League does not have a single black principal owner out of 32 teams,” journalist Ernest Owens said.

Racist and discriminatory people play on the idea of a race staying in their “country of origin.” This is similar to the prejudice we season in hiring across the business sector. We need to stop the perpetuation of the idea that only white people make contributions to the country’s cultural, scientific, ­legal, and different advances.

For Black men and women like Blake Simons, the deputy communications director for the Afrikan Black Coalition, "it was always confusing why black history was only limited to one month," journalist Melinda D. Anderson wrote.

"Since the schools he attended never taught Simons about Woodson, 'it made (him) feel as if (his) ancestors’ worth was only valuable in the shortest month of the year,” Anderson wrote. "Recalling his schooling, Simons now rejects the one-dimensional portrayals of black historical figures”

As America maintains to embody Black History Month in its modern state, the country implies that it is okay with this form of segregation: that one month is for African Americans and the alternative eleven are for everybody else.

“Black History Month has been repeating the same names, the same people, and remembering them although they were great it just repeats about the same people,” junior Dior Lee said. “But it has changed this year. People talk about musicians, actresses, actors, poets, and writers rather than the same story about Rosa Park sitting in the back of the bus. Black history month will be better with the years to come than it has been in the past.”

It’s essential that the USA appreciates African American achievements not as noble or worth kudos because these men and women are black, but because it’s simply the proper thing to do.