So, It's Black History Month...

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• published: 04 Feb 2015
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WE MAKE IT WORK LIKE TIM GUNN ***There is a certain part of the video where I say, 'Trans-Atlantic Railroad' instead of 'Trans-Continental Railroad.' I was thinking 'Trans-Atlantic slave trade' and 'Trans-Continental Railroad' at the same damn time, and my thoughts got ahead of my mouth. My bad.*** Hey Guys! Happy Black History Month… I guess. I have a lot of conflicting feelings about Black History Month. On the one hand, I feel like something is better than nothing, but on the other hand, compartmentalizing ethnic/minority history further 'others' minorities and reinforces the idea that white/Eurocentric history is the standard for history in this country. Without fail, every February you get the question: 'Why is there no white History Month?', and the answer is because every month is white History Month! We learn about white history every month of the year, with the implication that white history = American history just like white people = Americans. (And it's funny because for many Black Americans, American history is the ONLY history we have. Many of us can only trace our family lineage back a few generations until slavery. A lot of white families can trace their families back multiple generations to an 'Old Country,' yet are somehow seen as more American than ethnic minorities because they're white.) Black people have been in this country for the last 500 years, but a common argument as to WHY we are not included in historical accounts of 'American' history is the assumption that we have been nothing but slaves or servants in this country. This couldn't be further from the truth. We have held important benchmarks in American History, from Fort Mose, the first sanctioned free Black city, established in 1738, to the artistic achievements of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, to Jackie Robinson's success in Major League Baseball in 1947 and beyond. Is this not 'American' history? And why must we learn a whitewashed, white supremacist version that seeks to portray American history as white and Black history as 'other' for 11 months out of the year? P.S. One of the responses I've seen to this whitewashing of American history/'Othering' of minority history are attempts to normalize minority history through the use of hashtags like #HistoricPOC, which utilizes pictures of various POC throughout history engaging in American culture. While I feel like people's hearts are in the right place, POC is NOT synonymous with Black, and celebrating non-Black POC during Black History Month is inappropriate and a form of Black erasure. Why #HistoricPOC and not #HistoricBlackPeople? Talking about Black people *specifically* tends to make a lot of other, non-Black minorities/POC uncomfortable, and they often attempt to piggyback off of our movements by making them all-inclusive of POC. This has been discussed in my various 'All Lives Matter' videos and videos on anti-Blackness, because, imo, anti-Blackness is at the root of a lot of it. Someone asked me about this on my 'Black Girls Are Popping' video, where I chose to speak to Black girls specifically instead of using the term 'WOC' or 'POC.' This is why. Sometimes people and their individual struggles need to be addressed specifically, and sometimes it can be erasure and offensive to lump all minorities together under the umbrella term of 'POC.' Thanks for watching (and reading! This was a long one). Links: On Fort Mose: http://www.fortmose.org http://www.fortmose.org/history/history.html http://www.blackpast.org/aah/fort-mose-florida http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Mose_Historic_State_Park Discussions on diversity in 'Agent Carter' (great reads, please check them out): http://medievalpoc.tumblr.com/post/109592501468#notes http://medievalpoc.tumblr.com/post/109586736398#notes http://medievalpoc.tumblr.com/post/109591476088#notes Black life in the 1940s: http://appleqb.tumblr.com/post/109981404650/sensei-aishitemasu-karnythia-this-is-just-a Tamora Pierce post: http://tamorapierce.tumblr.com/post/109503679112 Tamora Pierce apologies: http://tamorapierce.tumblr.com/post/109977758687/one-last-time-no-really http://tamorapierce.tumblr.com/post/109922660022/tiaras-n-teakettles-on-exactitude-tamorapierce#notes http://tamorapierce.tumblr.com/post/109914006122/on-exactitude My post on the #HistoricPOC hashtag: http://sensei-aishitemasu.tumblr.com/post/109970463348/blackmagicalgirlmisandry-micdotcom-historicpoc