Why It’s Important
an essay directed at all Americans, not a single culture or race

Every year, I am blessed with having to hear all kinds of bullshit explanations for why Black History Month exists. Black History Month isn’t supposed to be about making white people feel guilty nor is it supposed to be about excluding other races (yes, I’m talking to those blacks who made some very shameful choices at the Black Expo last year.  I heard that some black people attacked white people for trying to take part in the festivities – utterly stupid. How can other cultures learn to accept us if we don’t let them participate?). It’s also not about blacks having a holiday so we’ll shut up (I heard this one last year. A very vulgar comment from a very vulgar person, no doubt.). It’s not about blacks thinking they’re more special than other races (this is the most childish accusation I’ve yet to hear. Because I happen to be black myself, if you haven’t guessed, and I believe that all of American History is important – not just Black History). It’s not about putting minorities on a pedestal or pointing a finger of blame. Nor is it simply about struggling to barbeque in the winter because no one wanted “crazzzzzzzzy” black people running around acting like fools (something quite difficult to do in cities with heavy snowfall).

No, Black History Month is supposed to be about learning about another culture and with that understanding, diminishing hatred.

The whole point of learning about our past is to make our future brighter. Without knowing where we’ve been, how can we know where we’re going? It is amazingly stupid that schools overlook Black History Month – amazingly (and here I’m speaking from my own experience. I don’t know about schools today). Because so long as ignorance is allowed to continue, so is hatred. People never like what they don’t understand and as a result, their ignorance turns to hatred, their hatred turns to violence, their violence turns to utter war – and by the time we’re standing in the ruins, we’re wondering how the hell we got there and why it happened. Because we were ignorant. Not only that – but because we chose to be ignorant, and as a result, we suffered the consequences.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with being ignorant in the first place – we can’t come into this world knowing everything there is to know. But when we choose to remain ignorant is when we stifle our potential to move forward as one race – as the human race – a complete whole rather than several wholes constantly bickering and feuding over things as obtuse as our favorite foods: hating someone for liking chicken and watermelon is almost twice as stupid as believing that an entire race predominantly likes the food (and as a side note, I like chicken just fine – as well as pork, fish, and beef -- but I utterly loathe watermelon).

Not only do people choose to be ignorant (out of sheer apathy, their opinionated minds, or their arrogance) but there’s also the fact that the truth is always by far uglier than lies. Lies have a way of being very pretty and besides, who wants to hear that their African ancestors were sold as prisoners of war by their own people into slavery – who wants to hear that white men (the ancestors of blacks as well) chained these captured Africans in their own feces and vomit, whipped them until the bones stood out in their backs, raped them, and threw them overboard for the sharks to eat? Who wants to hear these things? And what’s the point of hearing them?

The point is this: these people (both the whites and the blacks and the Native Americans) lived in a time period where in reality no one was free. We have a freedom now that is unbelievable compared to what these people had, and the only way to insure that freedom continues is to look back and remember what it meant not to have freedom at all. Because in the end, the moment you take something for granted is usually about the moment that you lose it.

Black History Month is about stopping the cycle of hatred in its tracks so that things like segregation, discrimination, and senseless violence don’t happen again – not just to black people but to any community – any race, religion, or people of a largely unaccepted sexual orientation. The only way to stop hatred is to understand its consequences. The only way to stop hatred is to beat ignorance with a hammer until it lays down and stays down (although it really never shall permanently). And I’m not just talking about hatred between difference races. I’m talking about the hatred that we may have for ourselves.

So the next time you decide to hate somebody because of their race, their sex, their religion, their sexual orientation, go out and learn something about them – through experience, not through what you hear. And then go learn what it really means to hate someone – go out and learn what horrors have occurred in the past, what lives have been wasted, what blood has been shed. And then take a good long look in the mirror and ask yourself . . . “Do I have the right to cast the first stone?” If you answered yes, allow that you harbor an extreme case of narcissism.

As a last observation, it is not “white” to value education, it is wise, and choosing to remain ignorant is the true core of stupidity.