| This is the final week of Black History Month, and it seems most people could care less. Strangely, I’ve become one of those people.
I say "strangely" because, for a long time, I was one of the people defending the cause, fighting the good fight. But the person who originally planted the seed for a Black History Month, Carter G. Woodson, wasn’t hoping it would take on a life of its own – he hoped that eventually there’d be no need for it because people would willingly appreciate the contributions that blacks have made throughout history.
And it seems that’s where "blacks" have missed the point. The struggle isn’t about keeping Black History Month on life support with bigger and better dances, musical tributes to Bob Marley, and sales of Martin Luther King posters. It’s about challenging mainstream society to grow up and become more mature by taking and making your place within it.
Black History Month was the first step in this process, but some people seem to think it’s the only step. So year after year, each February, we’re literally being treated to the same old song and dance.
And there’s another song and dance being perpetuated hand-in-hand with Black History Month: race. Black History Month is a reaction to white supremacy, but not of the Hedy Fry variety with allegations of cross-burnings in northern British Columbia. It’s an extension of the attitude that all that is white is right, and everything black (meaning non-white) is insignificant, trivial.
The results of white supremacy can be found in any history book, and despite what some argue, it’s still seen today. One effect of this ideology was that black history was omitted from textbooks – the message went out that prior to colonization, Africa had no history. This misinformation is part of what Woodson set out to correct when he developed the idea for a Negro History Week.
Seventy-seven years later, Negro History Week has evolved into Black History Month, and along the way we’ve continued holding on to the idea of a black race – this shows we’re really not as sophisticated as we like to think we are. "Superstitious" would be a better description, because race is about as real as the bogeyman.
After all, race is really about shaping someone’s identity using his or her skin colour. Race allows you to place expectations on people without ever getting to know them. We all fall into this trap, as long as we hold onto the idea that someone’s essence can somehow be defined by skin colour and physical features. It always backfires.
Morris is someone who most of us in North America would identify as a black, Afro-American. He was a contestant on the game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire, and I knew he was in trouble when he used up two lifelines to find out that Grover from Sesame Street had blue "fur." But I was even more surprised when he had trouble with the next question, which asked what city Martin Luther King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech in. Well, Morris didn’t know. He had to use another lifeline to help him get the answer.
The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP), a black human rights organization, has criticized Hollywood for not having enough blacks on television or in the movies – and here’s Morris, making a rare appearance on a show that’s taken flak for having few minorities, then stumbling on a question about Martin Luther King. To top it off, he does this on national TV during Black History Month. He should have known the answer right off the top of his head. It was a sad day for black North America – or was it?
I fell into the trap of expecting Morris to have the correct answer because he’s a "black" person answering a question about "black" history. It was an unfair expectation. And it raises an interesting question about identity when a "black" man can’t answer a "black" question during Black History Month. What assumptions are we making, and what do we mean when we describe another person as being "black"?
James Baldwin said it well when he wrote that, "If I’m not who you thought I was then that means you’re not who you think you are." |
