There was a letter to the editor challenging the need for Black History Month. I wonder what other people think about this? I've always taken the view that it would be nice not to separate out black history, but African-Americans hold a pretty unique place in our history, and most civil rights advances have been centered around black Americans. I also have always found African-American history fascinating because so much of this county's history revolves around it's treatment of blacks, minoritites.
We (at the Traveler) also got several calls/emails from people who reminded us that there was a pool for black people in Ark City in Carver Park. The response was triggered from a story Wednesday quoting Donna Barlow that there was no place for black children to swim so they swam in the river.
http://www.arkcity.net/stories/022708/com_0001.shtml
There was a pool, of course, but Donna told me after the story ran that it had been closed because of a drowing death, forcing black residents to swim in the river. That is why, she told me later, that she agreed to swim at Paris Park. She told me she probalby would not have pushed the issue had the black pool still been operating.
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Not to change the subject, but...
Why is it OK to say "Hillary Rodham Clinton" and NOT "Barock Hussein Obama"?
Just wondering.
I used to know (in the 90's) an 80 year old black gentleman who used to tell me his experiences of jazz clubs and chasing women in the 30's in Detroit, as well as 1950's, 60's and 70's Ark City history from the black perspective. I found his stories very fascinating.
I kick myself for not writing these down or recording them because it was very clear to me that the Ark City life of a black man in the 60's was completely different from what I experienced, and that there is no resource for this that I have found.
Maybe someone at the Traveler could do interviews with some of these people who lived this time frame and correlate it into a history. I would buy a copy. Who knows, you might win a journalism award.
Also, Chilocco Indian School, while there are still people alive to tell the stories.
Well, first off, Rodham is not her middle name but her maiden name. You don't call other candidates Hillary Diane Clinton or John Sidney McCain.
Secondly, his name is spelled Barack.
People use his middle name because they want to further the myth that he his Muslim.
I find it interesting that some feel there is a need to, what seems like constantly, remind or inform children of race issues that the children really are not aware of or care about anyway. Especially in a small town like Ark. City where everyone knows everyone and most everyone gets along just fine. It's the drug problems in Ark. City you should worry your children about, not race issues of yesterday or today.
As for Black History Month? There is so much more to Black History than the injustice done to them by the white man, why not teach more of that?
It does somewhat fascinate me, however, that the only real race issues people stir up are factual and or the non-factual issues of years ago between the blacks and whites and Hispanics.
It's good, I guess, Ark. City society has forgotten about the so-called "Red Man" and has stopped picking and stirring up trouble there in Ark. City for them, or so it seems as far as race issues go.
I'd like to point out that for all the people in America who claim that they are (Blank-Americans this & Blank-Americans that); the "Native Americans" are the only Race of Americans that have to carry an Identification Card "PROVING" they are Americans and Indians!!! No other race has to prove they are any race at all!
I wonder if any other race would or even could do that? Can all African Americans "prove" by direct blood lines they really are "African" and carry enough of that blood line to be on a Roll of African Americans? Or how about the Italians? Or the Germans? Or the ANY OTHER RACE????
Just some thoughts to think about, no offense intended to anyone or any race, but as an American and a Native American with just a tad too little blood line for the Roll, what does that make me? I'm too dark to be considered white, but not enough blood to be considered officially Indian.
Sometimes I think my ancestors were right to fear every race that came to Our Home Country. Now I tell my Grandchildren of our "Old Ways"... we are all Brothers to the Great Spirit!
Many good comments on the topic of Black history month. The problem with pretending that current state "just happened" is summed up in the old adage, "If one does not know their history, they are certain to repeat their failures.
The advocacy for Black history found its energy in a country where people, such as myself, grew up thinking that my ancestors were nothing more than a drain on society.
While it may seem inconvenient for you to read about it, maybe you can show some human compassion for the fact that I lived in a time when it was not safe for young black children to be out alone after dark; EVEN IN LIL OL ARK CITY!!
I am reading your argument that we ignore that many of the inventions that modernized America that may have been the brain child of descendants of African slaves were wrongfully assigned to non-minority persons simply because in the pre-civil rights era, African descendants were often denied the right to be named on patents.
I graduated high school never hearing the names of prestigious inventors who share my ancestry. Learning about it as an adult heightened my sense of pride in my origins and the fact that we survived and even prevailed over the hideous past of inhumane slavery in the USA.
I needed to know that. I needed to hear the part of our history that was not recorded in the text books until recently. And, to have been subjected to the rhetoric that was text book information of the past deserves atonement in the form of clearly identifying the story of a race of people who contributed to the development of this great nation.
My third grade teacher referred to the Rev. Dr. M. L. King as a trouble making "N" who needed to be dealt with. What a horrible untruth to have uttered to an 8yr old. Why wouldn't we want to make certain that the truth be taught and told?
Let's put it this way. If someone stole your entire life savings from the bank, would you want to just forget about it and go on from there or would you want to straighten out things and recover what was stolen from you?
You would not want a thief to just go on from here living off the money that belongs to you. Neither does a race of people want to pretend that the omissions from our teachings and records of this nation be ignored. Black history month is a time to celebrate and to tell or retell the truth about the role of African (and slave) descendants in this nation and in the world.
Once the truth is accurately included in the texts and teaching in the nation, maybe we can dismiss a separate time of clarifying. On the other hand, maybe the Smiths might want their own descendants to know why they are smiths and not Joneses. I cannot fault them for that.
I imagine at a family reunion the children hear about their grand and great grand parents and not so much about the ancestors of unrelated strangers who happen to live in the same city or state or nation.
We can celebrate our own without demanding to be separated forever.
Don't you think it is funny (interesting not ha-ha) that we refer to most of those groups by some geographic predicate. Then we simply say "white" as if to assume that group to be mono-cultural regardless of origin.
Whites from the USA have taken to speaking disparagingly towards whites from France since the Iraq war. White Irish were among some of the most deplorably discriminated populations in our forming United States and industrialization era.
You have a point. Maybe Caucasian peoples need to take an in-depth look at how diverse they are based on geography and other factors. In America, Caucasians are the majority population.
Except for in places like Liberal and Dodge City, Ks where the South American (yet still of the Americas) have surpassed those numbers. Hence, the Latinos, Latinas and Hispanics are the majority and Caucasians are a minority population.
What if that did continue? What if, also, the new majority population opted to credit their own with the significant positive events in the progress of humanity? Would it matter if George Washington were labeled as a renegade and stripped of his legacy as the nation's first POTUS? What if a brown skinned historian of a the majority population Americas re-wrote the history books and mandated that our public schools, staffed by mostly brown skinned Latin American teachers, taught their own edited version of history.
Maybe we all need to know the truth about our history, ancestry and ingenuity. That's what I think. And we can, like I did when I considered a subject boring in school, just sleep through the parts you don't care to hear.
Race is only an issue to people who insist on making it an issue.
I don't think most people care or notice anymore.
Put the past behind and move forward. If you insist on living in the past, please don't waste it on others.
History has a place and shouldn't be forgotten, but it should not be a contemporary issue.
Well, I would suppose that I no more speak for all than do you. Race matters to me. As the world has many millions of people, it also has many millions of views.
Race does matter enough to have us up to our great grandchildren's wallets in a war. I assure you that the Homeland Security folks at the airports see it.
Even my bi-racial granddaughter SEES the difference between herself at age 3 and her cousin of the same age.
I am encouraged (DELIGHTED) that you do not see the difference in pigment. Kind of wonder how you coordinate your wardrobe but to each his/her own.
But, there is something subliminal in a person who protests the recognition of race in history. There is no concern for age in history. There is no concern for geography in history. There is no petition to remove gender from history. We, for some reason, only want to obliterate the role of race in history.
That, in itself, underscores the significance of it to the protester. How might a person perpetuate a debate about something they do not see? It would seem more than you might simply be confused since you do not see it.
So I will talk about what I see and experience. You can argue about what you do not see or value. Deal?
The Jewish Community, the Indian community, African Americans and other minority communities can truly understand the concerns we have and the injustice we have endured.
“Who wants to be well-adjusted to injustice? ” Cornel West
The Pitfalls of Racial Reasoning can only be justified by the uninformed and ignorance of the majority of persons who are not of ethnic decent.
“The crisis in black America is threefold...economic...political...and spiritual.” Cornel West
We should never think that most of White America will ever understand the concerns of the injustice imposed on our community.
I guess my opinion doesn't count, because my post didn't make it on here.
Mine didn't make it either. I hate censorship!
It just seems to me that it's okay to be proud of your heritage and races UNLESS you happen to be white, in which case you are a racist bigot if you are proud.
I really don't think it's that way here in America. I've never been called a bigot from claiming that I'm proud of my German, Irish, or British heritage. If I go on to say that any one of these heritages are the best, then yes, I have moved into that realm.
I never got that message in high school during Black History Month, that the black race was the best. So I don't think your point here is entirely valid.
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