Black History Month

"When you control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his "proper place" and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit. His education makes it necessary." -- Dr. Carter G. Woodson, "The Miseducation of the Negro"
http://www.freemaninstitute.com/woodson.htm
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/03/08/the_case_for_white_history_month/


As you may or may not know, this is Black History Month. As you may note from the second link, there is still a cry going forth from the land for a white history month. This is usually engendered by people who decry the divisiveness inherent in having a month dedicated to Black history.
Of course, the common reply is that the other 11 months are dedicated to white history. Also, often people use the fact it is the shortest month of the year that is the one given to Black history and say it is another sign of the racism of this country. Sadly, those making that claim show themselves ignorant of the history of Black History Month. Woodson founded it in a week between the birthdays of two men he believed had been quite beneficial to Blacks...Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. It was only later that it was expanded to a month. The length of the month had nothing to do with the one selected except for in the minds of people seeking to find racism in everything, whether it is there or not.
TO be certain, there is racism in America today. It is sometimes evidenced by whites, sometimes by blacks, sometimes by Native Americans, sometimes by Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, etc., sometimes by Asians...I could keep going because I hear racial smurf from virtually every group in existence.
I would say that people so desperate to find and prove racism that they invent it are A) instigators or racism, not problem solvers and B) racist themself. Racism is a large enough problem without finding it where it isn't.
Does this country need a white history month? Does it need a black history month? Does it need a circus performers month? How about a celebrity history month?
In The Varieties of History numerous famous historians discuss their philosophies of "doing history"...for one person it is the acts of the Kings that matter, for another it is the class struggle, for another it is the histories of battles, for yet another it is the movement of money that drive history. All of them are right and all are wrong.
I believe there is a place and a value for group specific studies as evidences by Dee Browns' tour-de-force, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee in which he unabashedly looks at history "from the Indian point of view" (foreword). But I don't stop with believing there is only a place for Black history or women's history or Irish history...I think there should be, and I am not kidding, midget history, underwater deep sea diver history, cartoonist history, and so forth...but only as part of the whole. None of this happened in a vacuum. No picture of history is complete without all these elements and many, many more.
As for setting a month aside for it...let's face it, if we could get most people to study ANY history for a month it would already be a huge step forward. I myself am too busy celebrating yet another Wear a Gorilla Suit Day coming to a successful conclusion to say much more.