BLACK HISTORY MONTH, A NECESSITY FOR WHITE PEOPLE

by Ruth Sheets

I appreciate “Black History Month.”  It provides a kind of relief for all of us from the other 11 months of whiteness, mostly white maleness (this includes the months dedicated to the history and contributions of other groups like Asian, Latinx, and Indigenous persons since their months have gotten little recognition and support so far, unfortunately). 

The challenge, many white men, particularly those in power, simply don’t acknowledge the fact that it is they who encompass most of the stories and people of US history classes with the rest of us nearly always on the periphery.  Their ever-presence is just assumed.  White men were/are the stars of every show while everyone else place supporting roles if even allowed on stage at all.

I suspect every white person in power can name 3 prominent African-Americans from the past, usually:  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Harriet Tubman, and Frederick Douglas, so “why do we need Black History Month, we’ve got it?”  Well, Can they identify 3 things each of them has contributed to this nation?  That is less likely.  I bet every Black leader in this country could name a whole lot of white people in American history beyond George Washington, Ben Franklin, and Abe Lincoln.  And, they can name more than 3 significant things about each. 

Right now, white folks, particularly “conservative” ones, are scared.  Until around 1955 and the beginning of the Montgomery, AL bus boycott, white people just assumed they were America and everyone else served as extras in their movie of life.  It was OK to treat Black soldiers, Marines, and sailors as inferior and the white officers constantly did their best to put them in a place far below white members of the services despite their extraordinary contributions and Truman’s move to integrate the military, something not done since our War for Independence.  

Black actors played servants, criminals, or workers in minor roles unless it was a “Black movie” or play.  Black musicians were popular but could only be heard by white people among other white people in segregated venues in most parts of the country. 

I had read of people in many areas of our country who had never seen someone who was Black (in person), by the time they reached adulthood.  I found that hard to believe until I went to college and met several.  A friend in graduate school in the 1980s had seen a few at a distance, but never met a Black person until he came onto our campus.  He had met Native Americans, being from South Dakota, but white people were all around him, all the time.  He told me there were rumors of a couple of Black students in his undergraduate college, but he never had a class with one of them.  That was the 1980s!

White Americans have a long history of mistreating people of color.  That is part of our history and continued over time because even our government saw it as acceptable.  Anyone who believed the nation should be able to do better was put down, silenced, even killed to stop that from happening.  Attacks on Black communities were permitted as was lynching, both terrorist actions to keep Black people in an inferior place subject to the whims of white people mostly men.  White women participated too, calling rape on Black men and youth because they liked the power they had to destroy the life of someone beneath them, possibly the way people harm animals because they can. 

As I said, white people in power are scared.  They may have an inkling that their ancestors, perhaps even their own parents and grandparents have done terrible things to harm Black fellow citizens.  They stole their land (hey, they did that to indigenous persons and so many others too), kept them enslaved, beat them for not doing tasks as fast as the whites thought they should (even though those whites couldn’t have begun to do that level of work, then stole their wages).  They took away their vote, drove them out of communities, set up “sunset laws” which made it illegal for a Black person to be in a town after sunset, destroyed Black-owned businesses, and so much more, yet despite all of this, Black people are rising.  They have not yet reached parity, or even close to it yet, but there has been progress.  Too many white Americans fear (for no reason in reality) that Black people, and other people of color will take charge, “steal” their jobs and relegate white people to the poverty, discrimination, and violence white people have subject Black Americans to over the years.

We see this mind-crushing fear in the actions of Ron DeSantis (a relatively recent immigrant family, who should know better) and several of his fellow Republican governors.  Those guys seem to be able to get their mostly-white state legislatures to bow to their will, passing all kinds of laws to try to put Black people back in the box those white “leaders” want them to stay in.

Then, there’s the ongoing police attack on Black Americans that has been part of life for generations.  We hear about its frequency now because we have body cameras that are supposed to be turned on during on duty encounters with community members.  There is nothing new about the beatings, choke holds, “no-knock” warrants, planting drugs, murders, lying and cover-ups perpetrated by police on members of the Black community; we just get to see it now and allow ourselves to rightly be horrified by it, that is, when we aren’t thinking either “He must have done something to deserve that” or “the cop really didn’t have a choice; he thought his life was threatened.” 

It has taken a while, but now, more white people are assisting their Black fellow citizens in stopping the anti-everyone-but-white-men actions, but not yet enough.  Those Republican-led state legislatures are passing laws to make it very difficult for Black people to vote, intimidating Black voters with threats of arrest for voter fraud they didn’t commit, and shoving through other laws that primarily make life in general difficult, even dangerous for people of color.  Equally problematic is that to a great extent, our courts are going along, often making up interpretations of the law that permits such unamerican actions against fellow citizens.  

February is Black History Month, for white Americans, Black Appreciation Month too, when We the People of the United States start to seriously learn what has been done to our fellow Black citizens by our fellow white citizens, and determine that we as a nation need to make amends.  We need to appreciate the amazing things our fellow Black citizens have done to help make this nation a world leader in so many areas.  Black History Month is a perfect time for every single white citizen to consider our own prejudices, even unconscious biases, and think about how our own actions have negatively impacted Black Americans.  Then we need to think about ways we need to work to lessen or even eliminate those prejudices/biases, becoming allies with Black Americans to work harder toward the founders’ dream of always working to make ourselves “a more perfect union.” This means making sure all citizens over 18 years of age can easily vote for  the candidates of their choice just as the Constitution demands, and have their votes counted.  Reformation of our police departments is essential.  This will require communities to redefine who should be police in the community, the kind of training they will need to be true servants of the people rather than community bullies.  Black people must be at the center of any changes made since they have been harmed most by traditional policing in this country.  Our judicial system from top to bottom needs to be composed of fair, talented, diverse judges and justices who actually care about the law, judging on the facts rather than their own unexamined or dismissed prejudices or donations from rich white people and corporations. 

When state governors try to take away people’s rights:  to read books they choose, to teach and learn Black History, to vote easily in every election, to have bodily autonomy, to be on streets and roads in the state in safety related to gun and police violence, to have clean air and water, and the rest, everyone, white, Black, all people of color, all genders, need to stand up and say “STOP!  We all deserve better and we demand it!!” 

February is a time for white Americans to listen carefully to Black Americans discussing the beauty and depth of African-American history and culture.   As all of us learn more about this narrative, we must ponder how we can more fully incorporate that American story into what is taught as American history, then make sure it is there.  It certainly is time!