From the National observance of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in mid-January through the month of February our nation has become increasingly flooded with Black History facts and trivia. It is unfortunate that hundreds of years of such critical historical data is currently crammed annually into one month which began with the initiation of Negro History Week in 1926 by Dr. Carter G. Woodson, referred to as the “Father of Black History.”
It has taken some three-quarters of a century to extend the promotion of such valuable information to one month. Perhaps we are finally on track and heading in the right direction toward incorporating Black History in its rightful place in history, the surest way to eliminate the perceived 6-week “glut.” Such a balanced historical diet may be too far in the future to fathom, however, in view of its recorded past.
“Most current theories of human development are based on the works of American and Western European scientists and therefore reflect the study of the White, middle-class (and often male) population, a minority of the human beings on the planet!” we read in a Baha’i Core Curriculum training book for Spiritual Education. “These studies largely reflect the population groups immediately surrounding the scientists themselves.”
Historically we complacently accept the constant reference to Blacks and other non-Whites as minorities while the non-White population of the earth far exceeds the White population, and always has since man’s beginning along the equator where a minimum amount of effort was required for survival.
Also subliminally inferred with the term minority is inferiority, a point which Blacks choose to argue while the Japanese and other immigrants entering into this country tenaciously strive to prove untrue.
We have been people-programmed through history to think that difference has to be good or bad, right or wrong and therefore we instinctively resent and resist rather than respect differences in people and opinions, feeling threatened by both.
For those who feel overpowered by 6-weeks of Black History, try to imagine the situation in reverse, not only being spoon-fed hundreds of years of White history (or lies agreed upon as Tony Brown puts it) but centuries of White superiority even today when only the spoons have changed.
I believe Tony Brown must also be on target when he asserts: “American Blacks don’t like or respect themselves. That’s why we don’t like or respect others.” It also explains why we go to such lengths to try to trace our genetic identity (or roots) to Africa or to something we can take pride in.
Why can’t American Blacks accept the fact that we are an original race with roots in many directions?
This does not mean that we should have less pride–only less prejudice.
If we were to place less emphasis on our genetic roots and those things which divide us and more on our spiritual roots and those things which unite us we would find ourselves spiritually elevated above all the occidentals and incidentals on which we base our multiple prejudices and come together in love and mutual respect as citizens of one world and members of one race–the human race!
