White ain’t all right

It ain’t easy being white during Black History Month.

Not because there is no “White History Month.” No, it sucks to be white during Black History Month because members of the white population are hardly turning a head to see the history of blacks. If this February is much like any other, it will be one of voluntary segregation. Even the figures and generalizations that make up what the white community at large identifies as the “black experience” do not ripple the ocean of opportunity that this month highlights.

Slavery has been reduced to a page or two in history books. Civil rights battles have become a nearly unnoticed recent past. Even the community around us is one riddled with invisible lines and uncaring individuals.

Black History Month is not about everyone, but it does take everyone to celebrate it. February is a month which affords us the opportunity and necessity to immerse ourselves in more than a shallow and politically correct interest.

An alternative to not paying attention is for individuals to memorize names, dates, statistics and facts involving black people – this is merely a superficial look at a culture and a people that is diverse and unique in too many ways to count. Black History Month offers the white community and America at large the prospect of an honest understanding of the American epic and the critical role that black people have played within it.

This role stretches into our food, music, dance, ideas, art, theatre, religion and morals. It enriches and enlivens the American experience no matter how much one recognizes it. It teaches us, in the words of Rev. Joseph Lowery, to “make choices on the side of love, not hate; on the side of inclusion, not exclusion; tolerance, not intolerance.”

A deep and real understanding that ventures beyond the tangible and into the intangible emotions that range from terror to strength and form the experience of a people and a culture is the sympathetic understanding which Black History Month affords.

White people, and America at large for that matter, it is time to “embrace what is right.” Reach out and make a real connection with another individual this month. Black people, you have so much to offer us this month through your ancestral past and vibrant present which is built on that past – speak out and stand strong because there are so many issues which we have yet to understand and uncover.

Let us reach back and better understand living history in order to look to the future as a myriad of individuals forming an expansive nation; let us “turn to each other and not on each other.”

“Let all those who do justice and love mercy say Amen! Say Amen! And Amen!”
 

E-mail: schammoo@indiana.edu