Ahhhh, I see the commentary must have struck a nerve @ Rk Byers….

I feel that SOME people(they know who they are) don’t want find out who REALLY mad achievements in this great world….and give credit that is due; it’s called F-E-A-R…….

parents gotta realize they need to get involved in their child’s education.have them take a class or two at the jr. college during the summer(i did), read books other than required by the school and discuss what they learned and when the finances permit, travel. the kids will be able to respectfullly challenge/question what’s taught in the classrooms and teach the teacher.

[...] more here: OPINION: Black History Month Shortchanges Us Posted in The 411 Tags: black history month, hannibal, martin luther king, obama, racism, rosa [...]

African history month is one big joke. Chinese, French, German and Arabic companies/governments/institutions built several dams (e.g. Merowe Dams) in Sudan to which cover Nubian temples, statues and artifacts with water. These are one of the oldest know civilizations in Africa and the world. The Nubians are an older people than the Egyptians. The Aswad dam in Egypt also did the same to Nubian statues/temples/artifacts in Southern Egypt. This is also happening in many other Africa countries. Why don’t we work with the gov’t of Benin to recover their historical treasures from the British after they destroyed the Kingdom of Benin? Why don’t we reclaim Egypt & Nubia (in Sudan). Why are we obsessed with a white Jesus and yet very few black christians can tell us about Tertullian, Saint Augustine or Saint Cyprian who were Africans? Why do black christians worship a white Jesus when the Ethiopians have Christian churches older than the oldest ones in Europe and these Ethiopian churches have original, ancient paintings of a black Jesus Christ, etc? Because we’re still slaves? Maybe that’s why we’re obsessed with slave history in North America, the Caribbean and Europe. Or maybe we’re too lazy to read books by people like Ivan Van Sertima, Chancellor Williams, Gerald Massey or Henry Clark. What a joke. Celebrating “history” while the bulk of our ancient history is being claimed by others or destroyed. Black History Month is a f****** joke…

Black history month is about the achievements and contributions of black people in America, as well as the struggle that they had to endure in order to overcome and progress. It is not about black world history.

earthling,

IT IS ABOUT BLACK WORLD HISTORY. You cant possibly teach about black history and ONLY deem it JUST what happens here in the US from slavery up to now, which is what schools teach. Our culture reaches back further than any other. EVERY one derives in some form or fashion from US and that needs to be told. Not just MLK’s ‘I have a dream’ speech, the cotton gin and madame cj walkers ‘hotcomb’ discovery…Schools dont even scratch the surface of who we are and were throughout history…But hey, if you are satisfied with that same old footage of the march on washington blaring on every channel every day for 28 days..then so be it…

I know that Cali, but I was stating how black history month in America came about, what it’s scope was. Of course our history reaches back to the beginning of recorded history, but black history month does not and cannot cover all of that; it’s about the black American experience. Black world history is exactly that, our place in the world, but then that month would have to be called Black World history month, and then our experience on the entire globe would be further illustrated. I get your point though.

I think the majority of people that reply to these articles have some level of intelligence, and I think the majority of them will go beyond the standard lessons of BHM, and study people like Hannibal. The amount of black history in this world is endless, but it takes a motivated student to go beyond the daily lesson plan to learn about it. My problem is too many black students aren’t making an effort to learn the basics like King, Malcolm, Rosa, and the rest. If black students knew about King, I doubt they would throw trash on Martin Luther King BLVD. If black students knew about Malcolm, I doubt they would wear their pants hanging off their butts like a criminal. If black students knew about Rosa, I doubt they would sit on the back of any bus, and act a fool.

I’m sure this intelligent black man (who makes some truly intelligent points) also believes that Jesus Christ is his Lord and savior and without belief in this WHITE MAN he will go to hell.

SMDH in amazement @earthling. If you only just stopped and realized that someone has deliberately cut us off from our root history, with the sole intention of keeping our focus of “history” on a time of chattel servitude, and the building up of another people’s economy and infrastructure (social and physical)with no real mention, that we had long established a sustainable and envied economic system while these people were in caves eating raw meat and wearing animal skins, you would begin to see how embarrassing your comments are. American history basically starts off by teaching you how they broke away from the British to build a new world, highlighting their heroes and the process of nation building.

Rev Jesse Lee Peterson, a regular guest on Sean Hannity, constantly thanks God for slavery, because it introduced us to these shores, and gave us humanity. Those comments are too asinine to address, but I wonder, if you share in that sentiment, just a bit, deep down!

Please listen to this short clip. This is a man who has a terminal mental illness. I want you to see how bad this sickness can get if not treated properly!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHsDgCSm11g&feature=related

Black history month was started by a black man because he saw how our people weren’t getting the credit and recognition for the things that they brought to this country. Black history month has never glorified black people as slaves, other than how black people fought against and how they freed themselves from slavery. Black history month has helped our people learn about who they were and how they could look within themselves in order to survive and thrive in America, during a time when black survival was nearly impossible in some areas of the country. You can’t blame black history month for people not knowing more about their history, because the volume of knowledege of our folks in America is way more than the usual names that are presented. It’s up to black people to do their own research and presentation of what they want others and themselves to know about black history. One person’s view of and feelings about black history in America is just that, one person’s view. Still amazed.

_A_, Just….Thank you…

earthling, You know what..I get what you mean now..I understand your point…And you happen to be right..The person who brought about black history month intentionally meant for it to be black AMERICAN history…Black people and their ‘struggle/accomplishments etc, since being in america…Alright, I see where youre coming from now.

Okay Cali…

RK Byers I’m starting 2 like your articles

I guess all those comments people posted of simple backwards azz articles NewsZero posts they got someone of…well I’ll give you time 2 show your true self but for now past 2-3 threads have been better than Boyce and Ms McCalla’s

@ earthling: I understand your point about BHM, however, it needs to evolve. To just focus on the history of the country you landed on without any reference to the wider, broader history of your African ancestry is a fool’s errand.
_A_ made an excellent point when he said that we are deliberately being steered away from our greater history, and even the slave history that is celebrated in BHM doesn’t recognize contributions to the building of America, the Caribbean, South America, etc.
Is there any people on earth who have adopted this approach who are positions of power? For example, historians in India are challenging several misconceptions of their history given to them by Islamic Moghuls and Christian British conquerors. Guess that’s one of the reasons they are becoming an economic powerhouse today. They look at the big picture. And, I don’t have to tell you how much China reveres its own history. They’ve got the 3rd biggest economy in the world and are soon to pass Japan for the number 2 spot. It’s 2010, we gotta be able to look beyond slavery whenever we look at our history. Everybody else is…

Read Carter G Woodsons book. Mis-education of the negro and see what he says himself instead of Azzuming

First page he talks about how blacks are taught to admire the peckawood and despise the AFRICAN

Like Pianki said no christian can tell u about the first 3 bishops of Rome Tartulian being one of the most famous and all three was under the AFRICAN roman emperor Septimus Severus

We shuldnt let no kkkracka tell us how to rember our past.

We are before Alpha and will be after Omega. As it was in the begging so shall it be in the Ending

Study yo story 365 days a year. Quit crying begging and askin this whyte bytch for more time to study your story. Be more like the peckawood and TAKE WHAT IS YOURS

GARVEY-UP

J A Rogers BLACK FACTS

http://www.users.fast.net/~blc/blac2.htm

maatra always goes hard on here. And how bout this for history. Christianity is actually based off of Egyptian mythology. So they took black mythology and turned it into a religion.

Yes maatra, it’s amazing that historical characters like Septimus Severus, African Roman Emperor, aren’t mentioned in BHM. And there’s so much more of our history that our kids should know about. I think that we can all agree that every month should be African History Month.

http://www.TEACHBLACKHISTORY.com

…Gotta correct myself a bit, Tertullian was one of the most noted but wouldnv been as popular today cus he had said “vanity vanity thy name is woman”

Bishop St Augastine gave the church its literature.

All this coming from the teachins of Dr. John Hnrick Clarke

Had to go dig in my notes

On a different note… I’ve always wondered why Black History Month was in February? The shortest month of the year?! Almost seems like a slap in the face…

At least they thought about our ancesters (long after they’re dead). but to add to that rich legacy, they need to help the ones alive NOW (education, jobs, housing like they goverment did the foreigners) is that too much to ask??????

DUDE THIS COUNTRY SHORT CHANGED US!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AS U SAY SHORTCHANGES US ….YEAH THAT TO! WE GOT F**KED PERIOD!

I’m black and I am so sick and tired of hearing how black peopled are messed around and whatnot. Black History month means absolutely nothing to me,having a black President means nothing to me,none of it does.This 2010 and blacks still want to hold on to the old way of life, they want to hold on to the pass for dear life,why I don’t know.
We don’t hear of Italian History month,or Japanese History month so what the hell is Black History Month suppose to prove. I hear blacks still crying about reparations and all I can do is shake my head,good luck.Don’t no one owe blacks a damn thing,get off your ass and do something instead of always looking for a handout.

[...] OPINION: Black History Month Shortchanges Us [...]

Looking for a handout? Actually mrfun1958, based on the HISTORICAL treatment of other minority populations subjected to governmental abuse within this country, blacks are indeed owed reparations. Your insistence that they aren’t is a product of the influence of institutional racism on academia, which in turn, affects far too many black students’ understanding of our own historical contributions.

Sound like you (like most white kids) were subjected to the idea of “black history” being nothing but a constant tale of struggle, ala slavery and the civil rights movement. No doubt you’ve never heard of Free Frank or Robert Smalls, or sadly, even Carter G. Woodson. I’ve wondered for years how black history month can even be mentioned without talking about Woodson. To me, it’s like talking about the theory of relativity without mentioning Einstein, but then that’s the point of academic racism, isn’t it?

It’s this form of institutional racism, as opposed to the mere existence of black history month, that seeks to relegate blacks to the fringes, pretend that our stories are not quite as worthy of repetition as those of our white counterparts. Ironically, it was this attitude that compelled people like Woodson to find a means of celebrating the contributions of blacks Americans in the first place.

That today there are blacks who are all for getting rid of black history month without even knowing how and why it came about shows the effects of academic racism. To get blacks on board with ignoring their own history, educators have told children that there is nothing to black history but tales of victimization, so why keep “holding on” to the past? Of course, the point is to reinforce the idea (for both blacks and whites) that black people have made no meaningful contributions in the overall scope of American history.

Thus, we end up with black people who think that black history = slavery, that reparations = handouts, and that those who talk about the past do so in order to “hold onto” something negative. Well, no thanks. I want to honor the strength and determination of those who came before me and made this country one in which I have opportunity today. No one is going to tell me that honoring these Americans is a bad thing to do.

Meanwhile, keep in mind that the same people who accuse blacks of “holding onto the past” when celebrating our history are quite proud to relate their own glorious past…whether they ever “get off [their asses] and do something” or not.