(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
 . . . . . . . . . .



Fear of a Black History Planet [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags']

Date: 2023-02-01  

Eyes off the Prize?

With imagined controversies like CRT and, most recently, the banning of AP African American studies at the behest of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, I fear Black History Month will soon be on the chopping block. Carter G. Woodson, the founder of the Journal of Negro History, launched his modest idea of Negro History Week in 1926. Famously, actor Stacey Dash, ironically of Clueless movie fame, suggested the existence of Black History Month was somehow reverse racism or self-defeating. “There shouldn’t be a Black History Month. We’re Americans. Period. That’s it,” said Dash, when she was a member of the FOX news channel. Her comments were in 2016 and before her renunciation of what some labeled as self-hating and anti-black comments.

Once her usefulness as cover for the channel’s conspiracy and hatred of Barack Obama became untenable, after letting loose of an S-bomb in response to a Barack Obama anti-terrorism speech, Dash was suspended and later fired. In fairness, Dash has offered an explanation of her past, saying, “I was the angry, conservative, Black woman. And at that time in my life, it was who I was,” Dash told DailyMailTV. Dash is not alone in her zeal to please by using self-hatred and controversy as a vehicle. Sports journalist Jason Whitlock recently tried hitting a homerun by placing blame for the death of Tyre Nichols by five black police officers on a black woman [Memphis police Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis]. Instead, he struck out, “It looked like what young Black men do when a single Black woman supervises them,” Whitlock told FOX News’ Tucker Carlson. Whitlock asserts the gang mentality demonstrated by the Memphis officers is somehow endemic to black men raised by single mothers.

“If we want to discuss the breakdown of family that leads to disrespect for authority that causes you to resist the police and run from the police and not comply with the police, because you resist authority at all times because there was no male authority in your home, let’s have that discussion,” concluded Whitlock. One has to wonder if Whitlock had that same concern for the parentage of the killers of George Floyd or Eric Garner. Language from prominent black Americans is a scary precursor for intramural support of oppression and further acceptance of racism (boss, we sick).

As Idealistic as Stacey Dash may be, black life in this country did not start as American citizens imbued with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In a speech, Malcolm X differentiated between the enslaved House Negro and the Field Negro, famously saying the house negro addressed his master’s illness with the words, “what’s to matter boss, we sick.” From three-fifths of a person, separate but equal, and literally dying to vote, Black history is now in danger of being shrunken small enough to be drowned in a bathtub.

The first Historically Black College and University (HBCU) is now known as Cheyney University and was founded as the Institute for Colored Youth in 1837. In 1965 the freedom for all blacks to vote was ratified. In 1977 NBC televised the first Miss Black America pageant. The pageant began in 1968 because the beauty of black women was not appreciated in the traditional Miss America Pageant. It took 177 years for a black Supreme Court Justice (Thurgood Marshall) and 232 years for a Black President (Barack Obama). If we listen to Ms. Dash, Justice Marshall, the first black Justice, was merely another American. How Barack Obama avoided gang violence—being the son of a single mother must confound Mr. Whitlock.

Continue to Vote for Change

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/1/2150541/-Fear-of-a-Black-History-Planet

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/