Breaking the Mold

Tara Moreland
2/17/12

As I sat at BSA’s “Love and Soul” event Tuesday evening, listening to music and poetry presented in honor of Black History Month, I thought about the significance of this month and its place in our society today. I looked around the room at “Love and Soul” and noticed two things: first, that there were very few William Jewell students, faculty or staff at the event, and two, the audience was comprised mostly of African-Americans.
These two realizations were disappointing to me for a variety of reasons. As I have discussed in this column before, the multicultural organizations on this campus constantly struggle to garner support from this community, and that continued to be evident given the turnout Tuesday night at BSA’s event.
It seems that any event associated with a multicultural organization is written off as only being for the people who associate with that cultural group. I believe this example is one that can be applied in a larger social context as well when thinking about Black History Month.
Not to sound like Kanye West, but sometimes I feel that the only people who truly care about Black History Month are black people themselves. Others ask the question, “Why do you guys need a whole month to celebrate being black?” or “We don’t get a ‘White History Month.’” These people are completely missing the point. Just because the laws have changed since the days of Jim Crow, does not mean that the oppression has miraculously disappeared.
Discrimination and the misunderstanding of the African-American people are still present in our society, and these ideologies can stem only from one place: ignorance.
Black History Month is not just about celebrating being black, but about educating others, both inside and outside of the black community, about the struggles these people have gone through and continue to go through. It is about examining why these struggles continue. I sometimes sense that people are becoming more and more apathetic about this month and what it means for so many people.
 I think that we have adopted the attitude that there is no need to keep acknowledging African-Americans because slavery is over; the Civil Rights era took care of everything. How blind are we? Racism is just as present as it was  in the days of Martin Luther King, Jr and Malcolm X; it is just more concealed.
By no means am I blaming only white people for apathy toward Black History Month or the oppression of black people. As a part-African-American person, I know that sometimes we can be our own worst enemies when it comes to our struggle. The violence we partake in is often toward one another. We resent our own people for trying to do something better for themselves. We continue to battle with drug use and the imprisonment and gang affiliations of our young men and women. We have to want better for ourselves and for our fellow people if we want progress in our community.
However, as a society, we must also ask ourselves why the African-American people in this country continue to struggle. Is it because they have not truly been able to gain their footing and recover from the things that others believe are long in the past? Is it because they continue to be discriminated against and oppressed by a society that continues to see them as inferior? What is the deeper, swept-under-the-rug reason that they continue to struggle?
These are the questions we must ask ourselves and truly consider. The next time you find yourself wondering why an entire month is necessary to celebrate black history, think about these things. Think about the struggle. It is not over, and everyone needs to know that.