i disagree. we are different. we celebrate different cultures. that's ok. in fact, it makes life a lot more interesting. houston is teeming with different cultures. i love it. i walk through the Galleria and hear languages i can't recognize. we have a huge array of restaurants serving all kinds of different foods. foods that were brought here by people from all around the world. we shouldn't be dividing over the color of skin. but i promise you, my 7 year old son learning more about black history doesn't cause division. he came home telling me all about MLK and what a brave person he was. it's not as if the entire country goes into black history mode during February. it happens in the schools, primarily.
Sorry if i offended you, that was not my intention. also Sorry that i misread you (about the You guys part). I was not trying to to let you say that you suffered from Slavery, i tried to let you say the opposite: that you as a person did not suffer from slavery I agree with you that it is not ancient history, but it is History. Like i said it is a terrible thing that it happened. And we should remember it. And if a Black history month make it easier for people to remember than i do not mind in such a month. but like i said i do not really care about those type of months/days.
Of course there are different cultures and different custums, different food etc. There are differences. However people deep down are not that different, people moslty want the same things. Like i said i agree that people should learn about slavery, and people should learn about the mistakes people made in the past so that we do not make those mistakes again. It is good that we learn about the great people in the past(like MLK, Ghandi etc.). So i think it is a good thing that we tell our children about the past. They should learn about those thing in school, and also at home. But like i said i do not see the point of a (whatever) History day/month. Lil Pun Yeah i figured that out I agree we should see the different Cultures and respect them (I find different culteres very interesting). I think people should see that deep down people are mostly the same. I think that if people mostly look at the differences they create groups, and that is never a good thing, IMHO.
I understand what you're saying but the problem is you cannot divorce his skin color from the hardships that he faced because it was his skin color that caused society at the time to place a hardship on him. Another poster asked why should we be interested in people like the Tuskegee Airmen more than others well part of the reason is that to get where they were they had to overcome discrimination that had everything to do with the color of their skin. Black history is obviously American history but it is a distinct subset since nearly all of Black history is tinged by the fact that African-Americans in addition to being judged on merit were also judged on skin color. I think that is something that is important for all of us to know.
Having a day / month though is merely a calender reminder to reflection on the subject nothing more than that.
I know, but if you have a day/month for everything it kinda loses the effect IMHO. The same goes for silent walks. in Holland a couple of years ago, there were some deaths because of violence without a cause. and everytime people would walk at night for a couple of hours and be silent, as a protest. But after about 4 in a year it kinda loses it effect. After seeing how many months/days the people in the USA have i find it strange that there has not been a black history month. So in that case i really understand people think it is needed. one small question is every month a special month, i already counted about 9 special months in ryan17wagner post
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search William Joseph Seymour (May 2, 1870 - September 28, 1922) was an African American minister, and an initiator of the Pentecostal religious movement. Born the son of freed slaves in Centerville, Louisiana, Seymour developed a belief in glossolalia ("speaking in tongues") as a confirmation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. As a consequence of teaching this, he was removed from the Los Angeles parish where he had formerly ministered. Looking for a place to continue his work, he found a run-down building in downtown Los Angeles located on Azusa Street, and preached his doctrinal beliefs there. The result was the Azusa Street Revival. Seymour not only rejected the existing racial barriers in favor of "unity in Christ", he also rejected the then almost-universal barriers to women in any form of church leadership. This revival meeting extended from 1906 until 1909, and became the subject of intense investigation by more mainstream Protestants. Some left feeling that Seymour's views were heresy, while others accepted his teachings and returned to their own congregations to expound them. The resulting movement became widely known as "Pentecostalism", likening it to the mainfestations of the Holy Spirit recorded as occurring in the first two chapters of Acts as occurring from the day of the Feast of Pentecost onwards. Most of the current charismatic groups can claim some lineage linking them to the Azusa Street Revival and William Seymour. While the movement was largely to fracture along racial lines within a decade, the splits were in some ways perhaps less deep than the vast divide that seems often to separate many white religious denominations from their black counterparts. Probably the deepest split in the Pentecostal movement today is not racial, but rather between Trinitarian and "Jesus Only" theologies. While there had been similar manifestations in the past (the Cane Ridge, Kentucky revival a century before in the Second Great Awakening being one such example), the current worldwide Pentecostal and charismatic movements are generally agreed to have been in part outgrowths of Seymour's ministry and the Azusa Street Revival. William Seymour died of a heart attack in 1922. A play commemorating him and the revival, Miracle on Azusa Street, is sometimes produced by Pentecostal churches both to teach their own members about their religious origins and as an outreach to those outside. A feature film on Seymour's life entitled Azusa Street began production in 2006, the centennial anniversary of the Azusa Street revival. The film is written and directed by Richard Rossi. link
Black History Month has been around since 1976. Prior to that there was a "Negro History Week" which was established in 1926.
I agree. Black people have a distinct history in this country. Does that mean its more important than other groups, of course not, but it is very distinct because of slavery , jim crow , and eventual civil rights. Which leads to the next point, I understand everyone wants to move forward and treat everyone as equal. But just because we move forward doesn’t mean the past didn’t happen. Black people’s history in this country is based on segregation. It along with African heritage is the basis for black culture. And that’s why its studied. So when someone asks the question for example, why are black church gatherings different, there is in answer. Its based on the unique black experience.
Can you talk about the Dairy of Anne Fank with out listing the Fact that she was Jewish in Germany during Hitler's Reign? those things are IMO INTEGRAL to the story GW Carver's skin tone is an integral part of his story Mention Lance Armstrong without mentioning the Cancer Mention Hellen Keller without her being deaf or blind Mention Moses without the Egyptians without the mention the obstacles one over come and the source of the obstacles. . . I think you are diluting the story Rocket River
I'm not against mentioning those things. It is good to show the entire situation. but people should focus more on what those people have done, and not so much on what(in this case skin color/sick/deaf or blind/ nationality) they are. And about Anne Frank, she didn't really do anything. she is remembered because she is a symbol for the people who suffered because of Nazi germany.
I'm sorry, but this one of the most idiotic statements I've ever read here. Do any of us still suffer from slavery? Perhaps none directly in the sense of pure slavery, but every single American, whether they realize it or not and whether they admit it or not, suffers from slavery... and in a most profound way. It shows in our culture, our economics, our politics, the way we think. It shows in this thread. It is anything but history. The past is not dead. In fact, it's not even past. --William Faulkner
Ehh. Thanks I disagree with you, at this moment we do not suffer from slavery, We suffer from the way we humans are. The way we are is not a product of slavery, Slavery is a product of who we are.
Sorry but the legacy of slavery still reverberates today in the US, that's pretty obvious in almost every aspect of race relations - it's why we even talk abou them to begin with. It's similar to colonialism in a lot of European countries. Nobody (or at least very few people) in England or France or Spain today were formerly colonized, but the legacy of colonialism lives on in a huge way. That's obvious.
That is true, however i do not think that slavery is the cause, just a side effect. I think it is human nature to form groups and that way know who are their friends(and also their enemies). Also The people who think they are in power want to remain in power, and they do a lot to stay in power. The Dutch also Colonized a lot, and ofcourse it is an importent part of the dutch history. However like i said i believe it is history. If the legacies of those thing life on then it is beause we let it live on, by focussing on differences instead of simalarities. And like i said i think that is not good(but also human nature).
This is non-sensical and a dangerous path to tread... of course we are human and humans do stupid and evil things, but those stupid and evil things have consequences and effects and cannot be divided into the neat dichotomy you put forth. And to think this way ultimately absolves our actions and forfeits our responsibilities to humanity. Faulkner again... Nothing, nothing—war, grief, hopelessness, despair—can last as long as man himself can last;...man himself will prevail over all his anguishes, provided he will make the effort to; make the effort to believe in man and in hope. If it is merely that we suffer for who we are, why make the effort at all?
Then that's just wrong. Slavery is pretty much the cause of why there are black people in america, why we fought a war over it, and why there are race relations at all. If not for slavery, then the vast majority of African Americans (and the entire African American experience) would not exist in the same way. That's just a simple fact.
Ask a rape victim if the suffer from the past offense In fact Ask her kids if they suffer even if there werent there Ripple effect Nothing happens in a Vacuum Rocket River
