In an excerpt from Maya Angelou's I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings about her memories of Joe Louis' boxing match, Angelou frequently references back to her "people", her "[race's]" history. With pity-invoking diction, she details how Louis losing the match would equivocate getting thrown back into slavery. Most importantly, however, she ironically points out that even though he's won and she feels as if they "are the strongest people in the world", they are still afraid.
As she writes about an age where segregation and open racism runs rampant, I became entertained with our modern response to slavery and inequalities: Black History Month. As the instigator of Black History Month's forerunner Negro History Week, Dr. Carter G. Woodson started the event to bring attention to the contributions of African Americans as they were commonly unmentioned. But, why do we still celebrate it today? Why do we, the world's "melting pot" of culture, still partake in the remembrance of only one culture for four weeks (and an additional day- every four years)? I believe this special month is completely unnecessary. It is fear that keeps it going. Fear that removing the holiday would raise question's on one's integrity: Are YOU racist? But, my answer is a strong and convicted "NO!". As a minority myself, I find it pointless to exclude or offend another person based on what he's born as. Then, why would I want to get rid of such a supposedly significant part of contemporary life?
Contradicting Angelou's viewpoint, I believe the past should not stay with you. It should empower you, drive you to your fullest potential, maybe even caution you sometimes, but your history should never chain you down. If African American's want to be fully "equal", their special month should be removed. The same goes for Jewish American History Month. And no, I'm not anti-semitic either. Yes, slavery was crude, cruel, and stupid and the Holocaust was disgustingly unjust, barbaric, and horrendous. But, giving two months for special remembrance isn't going to erase the terrible things that have happened. These are the dirty secrets of the human race that we all must carry inside, knowing that our ancestors have caused, endured, or ignored these acts. We do not need "special months" to remember these facts. We need only to look around us, see the still standing damage of our past, and recognize that rebuilding still needs to occur.
I really like your conclusion and I agree with you [:
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesting view Sarah! I completely agree with you. By keeping these national holidays, the black race or the Jewish is not treated completely equal. It ceaselessly drags them back to the time when they were treated differently, when they are essentially just part of the one and only human race.
ReplyDeleteWhat an engrossing and interesting perspective. Truly, we should all unite and form a single world culture and forget all those pesky differences we've spent centuries cultivation. A brave new world, indeed.
ReplyDeleteI like how you so brazenly go against the norm. It may seem as if these holidays are unimportant, but maybe they're a kind of revenge or memorial of the past. If you think about it, why do Asian Americans celebrate Chinese (Lunar) New Year? If we really wanted to be American, we should cast off these differences and conglomerate to make a whole. However, I feel like mankind naturally wants to feel accepted, but unique at the same time, a kind of paradox. It would be impossible to change the past and our race, so we must owe it to ourselves to remember what happened before us and never repeat our mistakes. Like many the many recent disasters (many of which are flagrant repetitions), we tend to forget unless there is something thrown in our face about it.
ReplyDeleteStraight from the horse's mouth.