February is set aside as Black History Month. Black History Month began as Negro History Week in 1926 (later changed to Black History Month in 1976), created by scholar Dr. Carter G. Woodson who saw that African/Black History was not ( and is still not) recognized in the American MIS-education system and saw the need that it desperately needed to be. For us aware Africans, African/Black History is to be celebrated 24/7/365 while unaware Africans celebrate only during February. This is TRULY a shame because we are African/Black all year around and are reminded of it everyday under the system of racism (white supremacy).
While many Africans are indeed finding consciousness and rediscovering our glorious history, there is still a disturbing slave tradition still among many within the African Diaspora in America of refusing to read or learn anything. It is rampant and does not apply only to the ignorance of our true history on this planet, but to EVERYTHING. Many do not see the importance of knowing history. Young Black Children are walking around thinking that it is “acting white” when it comes to academic excellence and success in general. Many Black Adults are not trying to learn anything themselves let alone teach our children anything. Moreover, many Blacks with 1 or 2 degrees don’t know much about our history either. It is up to us Black Parents and other Black Adults to teach Black Children African/Black History because no one else will.
I believe that this refusal to learn African/Black History is because of three reasons: 1) Black People have spent 12 years within the American MIS-education system being programmed to think that White people did and said everything that was worth doing and saying, and that the most important and influential figures in world history are white; therefore encouraging feelings of worthlessness and inferiority within Black people from early childhood well into adulthood 2) Black people were discouraged and banned from learning to read during the slave era, therefore this attitude has been passed down from generation to generation well into today, and 3) The attitude that “Black people have no history” have been programmed into the African psyche, therefore many of us don’t see the use in learning our history because we’ve been programmed to believe that we don’t have any history worth celebrating.
Now let’s look at resources. Black people today have an abundance of resources today at our fingertips that our grandparents and great grandparents did not have. We have scholarly books, papers, lectures, documentaries and other resources by dedicated African/Black scholars from all over the diaspora who have dedicated their lives studying and revealing the truth about us to us. Then there’s the Internet which has been very revolutionary in making these resources and the information within them more readily available to the masses. Any information you want to know about anything you can find it on the internet.
Dr. Woodson concluded, ” If a race had no recorded history, its achievements would be forgotten and claimed by other races.” This is exactly what happened to our history not just in America, but all over the world. So to all African/Black People who is of sound mind and body and can read, there is NO EXCUSE, NO REASON WHY BLACK PEOPLE SHOULD NOT KNOW OUR TRUE HISTORY TODAY.