February is Black History Month. Back in 1926 it started as "Negro History Week" . . . .
I enjoyed discovering the story:
http://www.infoplease.com/...
On the Internet nobody knows I'm a dog, as the New Yorker Magazine caption says. And I rather like it that way since we meet here as equals, more-or-less.
Yes, I'm extremely happy that formerly excluded groups are honored with "Months" and the like, but I'll be even happier when we all manage to see each others as fellow human beings without labels or barriers or pre-conceived notions.
Full disclosure: I am descended from one of those stereotypical groups of "dirty little immigrants" carrying bundles on their backs, so I'm a bit touchy about how the so-called "mainstream" handles the rest of us.
When I was growing up back in the early 1950s I had the feeling that any time they gave you a book which highlighted any particular (minority or hyphenated-American) group, it was a sign that there was something 'wrong' with them/us.
The dominant culture was so overwhelmingly "WASP" if not New England Episcopalian as the rule and example. They were at the center; we were at the margins. If you, too, were raised on "Dick and Jane" you could read the signals.
Patronizing when 'they' highlighted 'us'? Obviously.
The general tone was:
"Isn't is amazing what exceptional members of that pitiful bedraggled group managed to do?"
I remember feeling a bit silly being handed books in the children's library about "Great Jewish Athletes" because why should the Jews be separated from wider set of all athletes, or about Ralphe Bunche -- the high ranking "Negro" of my childhood, since why was he 'different' from Eleanor Roosevelt or other diplomatic types in his circle.
I am so glad to see that particular phase of American history fading away.... and that "Black History Month" no longer brings me so many shockingly big surprise discoveries about major MAJOR overlooked people and events in history ......because (I hope)....we're becoming more like ONE America, but NOT in the conformist sense. Pulling together all the threads.
E Pluribus Unum.
We've come a long way, but not nearly far enough. In fact, things are still too problematic when it comes to race, to ethnic origins. And we suffer from looksism, sexism, and ageism.
Isn't is a silly burden to place labels on people and make them jump through hoops?
Imagine if people only knew Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Dennis Kucinich without their 'appearance' or 'family origins'?
Maybe in the future there will be books celebrating famous Kenyan-Americans, famous tall and short Americans with funny names, in addition to the patting the little lady on the head, pinching her cheek, or hugging and kissing her without permission treatment that Senator Clinton politely endures.
I just try to take to heart the plaintive outburst of a college classmate who told us she just wants to be taken as "Joy" (her name) and not as a representative of her race.
I'm looking forward to Black History Month because of the individuals it will highlight!
And to our shared American history!!
P.S. This could be a highly rewarding month for us history enthusiasts. Thanks to the Internet I already learned something unexpected about Ralphe Bunche:
In 1936 Bunche authored a pamphlet entitled A World View of Race. In it Bunche wrote: "And so class will some day supplant race in world affairs. Race war will then be merely a side-show to the gigantic class war which will be waged in the big tent we call the world."
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Maybe I should add to that list of possible (semi-snarky) future items: "Working Class History Month" and "Middle Class History Month" as well as "Upper Class History Month?