A "white" history month?

Yeah, between things like "Saint Patrick's day", and the fact that systemically every other day of the year is used to talk about so called "white" or "European" based history. Move to an area where white is the minority, and is discriminated against and then you may find reason for it.

Kind of like Gay pride days / parades / concept vs. Straight pride.

Jobs applications you say? The only times I've seen race on job applications is under an optional section for "Affirmative Action". Which some may argue is part of the so-called reverse racism, but as Joey mentions, is nowhere near the prejudice against people of minority the rest of the time. None the less, anyone is free to leave the section blank.

I once had a black roommate and when we were out grocery shopping or whatever other black people would "Hey brother!" him. I don't know if it bugged him or not, but he was never the one to initiate it, and I don't know if I've ever heard him say "Dawg".

Do people that assume that you must play basketball because you're 6'6" and part black?

And of course Canada, the US, Australia and others certainly aren't "initially white"

 

I'm black and many black guys, usually older men, call me brother. At first, it annoyed me, but then I realized that they were trying to be friendly and I would be the idiot to act snobbish. All races, mostly older white people, call me son though. I think joeyconnick was referring to what race established the countries we have today, not before white settlements.

I think a White History Month would be pointless, as you all have stated. This country's prominent leaders have been 90% white. We've learned about them in Social Studies classes ever since we started school. White people, at least from what I can assume, have never been oppressed or had any major disadvantages based solely on their race. Excluding retaliation for their acts first (i.e. Colonizingother countries.) It wouldn't be racist dedicating a month to white people, it would just be redundant. Seriously, what could we learn that we don't already know? Whites were the majority in history, so they are covered most throughout our learning.

Although we've celebrated Black History Month throughout elementary school, there are still many influential black people I've never heard of. I believe any month, class, program, ect. concerning race is necessary. It lets us learn about others' culture, how we can improve as humans through their struggles and mistakes, and most of all, how they're human just like we are. They have dreams, goals, emotions, thoughts, fears, morals, and interests that may be similar to ours. It dispels, or at the least weakens, the stereotype that we have for virtually every race.

Now, I do believe that reverse discrimination is wrong. Discrimination is wrong, period. A white guy being excluded from a party predominately made up of Latinos is wrong. A Christian not being able to give out Easter bunny chocolates at her job but her Jewish co-worker passed out Star of David cookies for Hanukkah is wrong. A man being denied a job because it's a "pink-collar career" is wrong. A straight woman being verbally harassed by lesbians is wrong. Yes, these groups mayn't have been traditionally given the short end of the stick, but it still hurts.

I can't stand it when I hear non-black people justify their racism towards white people because of the history we've had with them or what they might be thinking. Their ancestors may have enslaved us for centuries or wiped out nearly all of our civilization, but it were their ancestors, not fair-skinned Ryan who sits beside you in English. It only makes us look ignorant and hateful.

 

"You know what? This is a bunch of fucking shit. Same with black history month. It causes pride and elitism. We dont need a fucking month to celebrate the color of our skin and insult other's colors of skin. It causes ignorant bigotry, pride, and is completely inhumane and unimportant. Wanna know about white or black history? Read a book. A month dedicated to this is dumb as all hell.
*rant over*"

:eusa_clap

 

To tell you the truth... I don't give a flying :***: about black history month... It's just another month to me. This doesn't mean I don't learn/know black history... it just means that history is history.... flat out... and a month is a month...


As a white male I feel discriminated against.

I mean I was always confused on how both of my parents chose to work, struggled, never could get help from government. (Never asked family... we weren't going to beg but a little help so parents could work oh... 1 job each would have been nice.) Yet, I'd see black (I refuse to say African American unless YOU or YOUR MOM... uh... I mean parents... sorry I've been in a very "Your mom!" kinda mood... anyways... you or your parents are from Africa...) guys and girls walking around with new phones new mp3 players (p.s. I was 18 before I got my first mp3 player and I had to beg for it as one of the few things I got for xmas...) and new cars with shiny rims and such.... with no job. I'm sorry, I got confused on how? So, because my parents have the audacity to work they don't get help but people who choose not to work get life a lot easier? Why?

And why does it matter if you're black or white? I don't get that. Why should race matter on who we lend help to? Why does it matter what race we are when we fill out an application?

But now I've strayed off to welfare and such...


Let me throw this up there.... I'm Not Racist! I hate N..... but I believe that is something COMPLETELY different from black people... just like white people and white trash are different.

I'm the only white person (well was... and soon will be again) who works in my section at ...work (that turned out sounding odd) and I believe Kim and Shane are amazing... They both work hard. Kim's husband works at a good job, they don't ask for hand outs. (They wouldn't) and Shane works 3 jobs breaking 60 hours a week (combined) to pay off his bills even though he knows he could get help from the government on it because of his living arangements.


Ok, I need to stop... I completely have forgotten what I've said so far... so I'll just do a short thing...


We don't need a white history month just like we don't need a black history month but to take it away would make us racist just like adding a white history month would make us racist.

And to quote Avenue Q.... "Everyone's a little bit racist, alright. *repeat alright* Bigotry has never been exclusively white."


P.S. every time I think of racism and such I think of this video. A game reviewer reviews a game a talks a bit about racism... it's a bit funny.... and a bit true... (he does review the actual game) http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/616-50-Cent-Blood-on-the-Sand

 

I don't see why a culture history month would be called a piece of s***. As long as someone isn't believing "My race is better than yours." Others may feel elite because of their race having a month, but I certainly don't.

I believe racial/cultural pride is like religion: it started with good intentions but those that follow it may lead it astray. So I believe calling the whole celebration and recognition unimportant and insulting is a little harsh and offensive.

 

prides' a tricky border shared with supremacy unfortunatly

 

So should we change gay pride to gay confidence? LOL Why get rid of the entire celebration when you could try to educate and humble the arrogant?

 

Very well said. I get tired of hearing non-white guys dish on white people in general. My parents, cousins and friends are all white and I'd never stand for that shit. The past is in the past. :lol: I can't believe that some people actually want or feel entitled to reperations as well. It truly makes me laugh in disgust.

 

I think "nationalization", of any cultural holiday is wrong. Each culture should be able to celebrate within and without their groups freely and openly. I just basically have a problem with a "higher authority mentality attempting to tell me or judge for any individual what is right or wrong". We do not need any more Divisions.

 

Well coming from the UK, I have never experienced a black history month. I do feel there is nothing wrong with them remembering there history, as many wont have such a long history to look back on as many people with a white background, but maybe a month is a bit long, maybe a day or a week would be better, but I can undertsand why they have it. so, that futures generations do not forget the struggle they went though for the civil rights movement. I doubt it is done to spite anyone, nor do i think it would cause elitism. as far as a white history month goes, people are right in saying that we learn about it al the time, and for the most part they come across as bullies, ad why would you want to celebrate that? Almost everything achieved by white people has been at the expense of someone else and I fail to see what there is to celebrate there?

 

I just wanted to drop in and point out a few things. like 90% at least of the founding fathers were racist as hell, George Washington was a racist, Abe Lincoln was racist as hell, yes he was go to the damn meusuem and read his diary if you don't believe me, he was just against slavery, in his diary after the war he wanted to round up all the "colored folk" and put them on a boat to what is now cuba.

Also theres still some people who are openly racist to this day who made a fortune off black people without them even knowing which is kinda funny (i got a messed up sense of humor) remember when rappers used to wear timberland boots and rap about them, yeah well they knocked that off real quick when they found out that the tree actually represented a tree that was used to lynch black people from and the owner of the company was racist. samething with that fancy wine drink "crystal" or whatever it was, the owner went out and blanatly made racist remarks about black people drinking it and refused to apologize for it and rappers stopped rapping about it and tried to boycott it.

Not to long ago, i'm going to have to find the article and post it. But a group of college students actually formed white group or something and people thought they were great until there senior year when someone dimed' them out and found out they took racism to a new level, they would go around and call people mondays'. yeah mondays' and it took one student to dime them out but the school couldn't prosecute them or penalize them in any way, because the word monday is a day of the week and not a vulgar word and even though they were using the word out of context unless your a mind reader you don't know what they ment by it (ex your a monday [genius, or vulgar remark], I hate mondays' [they just might mean they hate the day of the weak])

And on a seperate note the KKK actually doesn't go around and dress up and protest anymore there more of a politcal group now, its there sister group now that does that the IKA (imperial knights of the arain brother hood) basically klans mens, skin heads, and neo-nazi's in one group. there may be others but last time i checked (years ago so i could be wrong) they were the largest.

 

On the issue of gay pride. Though I think its as dumb as black pride or any other pride, its possibly necessary. In this day of age, the LGBT community are being prejudiced the most and are in need of over coming their oppression. Though, its not as bad as it was, we still need to earn the respect that blacks or any other oppressed group has gained. That is the only reason I tolerate it.

 

I think a major aspect of Black History Month as a concept is its capacity to educate - it's fairly clear that the vast majority of bigotry stems from ignorant people. It's also clear that black americans are over-represented as victims of bigotry. These two premises lead to the conclusion that educating ignorant people will reduce bigotry, therefore improving general quality of life for black americans.

I know it's anecdotal evidence, but I live in a sector of Australian society in which racist attitudes towards indigenous Australian people is quite common - that said, everybody I know who's actually researched the issue or been exposed to indigenous issues has developed a very understanding and progressive worldview.

Having said all of that, I don't think a White History Month meets the same criteria. There's no evidence to suggest that white americans suffer unduly from prejudice. Nor are white americans marginalised and even vilified in public media. Therefore, I think it's evident that there's no need for a White History Month specifically targeting social issues unique to white people - rather, education campaigns targeting racial insensitivity in general would do the trick.

 

On the topic of "Well why not just have an anti-racism day/week/whatever", that would be March 21st, the International Day for the Elimination Of Racial Discrimination.

As far as "Black History month is too long", aside from the fact that it's the shortest month of the year (February), it's not like it's a forced event. It's not a forced holiday where everyone has to set up a black history tree, and sing black history carols. It's an awareness month. Just like Earth week, March is Nutrition month, September is Men's Cancer Health Awareness month. When I went through school, for black history month we'd probably have a couple lessons on it, maybe an assembly, probably some posters up, but it's not like it's all we did all month. And it's not just targeted for blacks, really it's for everyone, so that they can appreciate and become familiar with other's culture and history, and through familiarity, lesson their racist views. Kind of like what Zarathustra alluded to talking about Indigenous Australians.

It's not too unlike Gay Pride parades. The point isn't so much "Yay I'm gay!" but rather "Hey everybody else look! We're your neighbours, and we're gay, we're not something you should be afraid of." Look at some of the original Pride parades, they weren't well choreographed family events, but rather almost protest marches.

Almost ironically, cities with large municipal approved Pride events, or communities that really embrace Black History month, are generally the ones that least need it, as they're the ones that are already open-minded.

 

i have to agree with djt820. the whites shouldn't get their own month, but neither should the blacks. after all, asians and hispanics have had a shit load of discrimination. yeah we werent enslaved like the blacks, but we still were fucked over by a group of whites. and i'm coming from being mixed racial, does that mean i deserve a mixed ethnicity month? cuz sooner or later were gonna start running out of months...

 

Yeah, I think bulletins like that are totally out of line. People scream "white history month" because they act like black history month is "attacking white people" and they are LOOKING for a reason to cry "looooooooook white people can experience racism toooooooo..." it's like, NO shit. But the point of black history month is NOT to put down white people. It's the same as "straight privilege" straight people do not know how good they have it because they are not gay - but that doesn't make them WRONG or homophobic. It's the type of people who scream "straight pride," acting like gay pride is putting down straight people. They are just looking for a reason to fight.

We do have "white" pride. There are german fairs, and danish parades in my area. French festivals and the like. Black month was called black month because in the past, most black people did not know what part of the world they were from. So black is a good umbrella term. Typically in the past, most white people know where we are from - england, scotland, norway, french - thus there is no need for "white pride" because "Proud to be Irish!" makes much more sense.

 

Are you against gay pride parade and stuff too?

 

But Gay pride celebrates equality and it's a day in which your proud of who you are and your sexuality Black History month kinda focues on the supression of black people which we learn about all the time in school and stuff i've never heard a group of black people be over joyed at black history month or even mention it but idk nobody else if gonna agree with me so just ignore me

 

Interracial marriage was not federally legalized until the late 1960s. 1960s! That is not long a ago at ALL. I have absolutely no problem with black month, chinese month, gay month, purple month, big penis month, ovary month, whatever. The opportunity to learn more about a specific culture or people is great, and when the whole country is learning about it the information is more than readily available to the public. (God knows the USA fails at the education system already).

BTW this is not directed at anyone, just a hot topic for me.

 

hmm if a White history month can get kids to care about their own history and the culture they would have had. (Hell bring the poor children's parents into this, it's not like adults aren't ignorant towards their backgrounds.) For example, if they would begin to care that their ancestors were Basque. Basque from Spain not France. Then they were probably whalers. Whale blubber was needed to light our cities at night. The Basque traded so extensively with the Native people and Icelandic people that respective pidgins were created. the Basque language is one of Europe's most illusive and ... BUT NO-ONE GIVES A WHAT WHAT! The American governments have worked WAAAYYYY too hard to erase traces of peoples' culture that kids won't give a damn.

Would it be nice that they started?

and this is why aside from history class, Canada preaches multiculturalism like a religion so it is not necessary to entirely give up a native culture, it saves all this trouble of founding a

no?