Before the month ends, lets all remember Black History Month.
I can’t imagine it being taught here to people who think I am Indian (since I don’t look “American”, I suppose) and are quick to point out the heiren. Then again, isn’t that how ignorance is irradicated?
My school has quite a few children’s books on black culture and people in America and other stories that feature black children as main characters, but they are never put in a place where they would be noticed. 
very true indeed. The book we are using currently has it though, apparently the 23-30 yr old crowd seems to take notice of some stereotypes and neg images and have looked passed it, but this is just judging from the students I had talked with.
I definitely think more positive images are needed in Asia of ethnicities other than White.
Yes, lets celebrate Black History Month by watching “Barbershop”.
I still have the sound of the mostly Taiwanese audience laughing at the runaway slaves in Cold Mountain ringing in my ears. It seemed like the more painfully accurate a scene was in depicting the Civil War and the Confederacy, the funnier it was to them. And of course, it might be a surprise to some of them to learn that there are more black Americans out there besides Eddie Murphy, Will Smith, Denzel Washington, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant…
It occurs to me that most of the buzz surrounding Black History Month focuses on the black experience in America, when in fact most of “black history” has occurred in Africa. Would it not be more appropriate for Taiwan to take note of a Black History Month that focussed on Africa.
Or for that matter, why not have a Scandinavian History month here, or an Indian History Month. The whole purppse of the Black History Month in America was to give some perspective in a society that had traditionally ignored black America’s contribution and role in history. That perspective isn’t particularly useful here since almost ALL world histories are equally ignored in Taiwan.
That’s a good point, Maoman. This thread is a tad bit Americentric. Exactly how does an American holiday celebrating the conributions of an American minority group to American society relevant to people in Taiwan? It’s like expecting Americans to hold hands across the USA in memory of 2-28.
I’d never heard of “Black History Month” and had no idea what it is until Maoman’s post. Does it celebrate the achievements and contributions of black people worldwide or just in America?
No need to answer, I just did a quick google to find that it is indeed limited to Americans.
We never studied American history when I was at school. How much British history gets taught in American schools?
French & Indian War
Revolutionary War
War of 1812
WWI
WWII
…oh wait, the Pilgrims and Puritans, they were originally British, right? Yeah, we covered that part of British history, too, about how that king or queen you had over there wouldn’t let people go to the church they wanted.
If we must celebrate lets remember some of the favorites -
Ike Turner
Willy Horton
Marion Barry
OJ Simpson
Mike Tyson
and
Michael Jackson (though not quite sure if he is still black)
I took World History Honors in 8th grade…Ironically, I don’t really remember the history courses I have taken aside from the AP American History (yawn) and the African American History course I took in 10th grade taught by a white man who had to deal with racist idiots in the course who thought that because they were black they knew more about black history than he did. There were only two white students in the class. In university, I took a senior-level multi-discipline course on race and communication where I was one of the five black students (all women) in the course of 20 students. We were to have discussions after reading articles and viewing documentaries, but it was only the black students who did any real discussions while the others twiddled their thumbs. We had to do presentations on race and communication for the final grade. The professor began to ask how we wanted to choose our groups since there were 25 of us. One table of students in the back said that they wanted to work with the people at their table. The five of us looked at each other as each group of white students said that they wanted to work together, one by one. Their projects were the following: interracial relationships, black men and crime, blacks in crime, and interracial dating, citing sources like (and yes, these were people almost finished with their undergraduate studies) one…ONE interracial couple that someone knew for the basis of their research as well as that source of academic knowledge, the Jerry Springer Show with rather anemic reports consisting of very little information and even fewer visuals to accompany it. Our group did the portrayal of black women in the media, past and present through music, art, the cinema, and television through a video/powerpoint presentation that looked at rap music, old figurines and mammy dolls, films like Gone with the Wind and Set It Off, and shows like Martin and Living Single. It’s a shame that they chose to do the class like that. Granted it was a senior requirement, but that class could have been so much more interesting if people had just put some effort into it.
We won’t even start in on how Black History Month just happens to be in February, the shortest month of the year.
amen to that
(A bit off-topic) This weekend I was talking with the lady near the Bitan bridge who sells corn on the cob about Athula, the Sri Lankan fellow who sells delicious rhoti next door to her, and she said, “So you come from the same country as Athula?”
I believe she was serious.
Actually I think Black History month was originally Black History week, that happened to be in February. Then it got expanded to a month. That February happens to be the shortest month is just coincidence.
[quote=“drum_session”]If we must celebrate lets remember some of the favorites -
Ike Turner
Willy Horton
Marion Barry
OJ Simpson
Mike Tyson
and
Michael Jackson (though not quite sure if he is still black)[/quote]
Fine, just as long as you agree to remember (among others):
Frederick Douglass
Harriet Tubman
Sojouner Truth
Blanche Kelso Bruce
W.E.B. Dubois
Charles Drew
Jesse Owens
Marian Anderson
Louis Armstrong
Wilma Rudolph
Jackie Robinson
Rosa Parks
Malcolm X
Martin Luther King
Jimi Hendrix
Arthur Ashe, and
Gen. Benjamin Oliver Davis, Jr. of the Tuskegee Airmen (those guys kicked butt!!!)
French & Indian War
Revolutionary War
War of 1812
WWI
WWII[/quote]
We also read a number of British novelists and poets in our English Lit. classes in high school. This helps us understand a bit about various epochs in British history.
um actually Black History month was a week, true, but the reason it was in feb was because a lot of the very famous Black Americans were born on that month.
No offense intended, but why the f**k should we remember Black History Month? What if you don’t have any interest in black history?
Just think of all the contributions blacks have made to the world.
(crickets chirping)
Why, we’ve had black preachers, black civil rights activists, black revolutionaries…there was even a black scientist once who invented peanut butter or something, which was important to people OTHER than black people (and which white people would NEVER have thought of by ourselves).
And now that we have affirmative action, we’ve been privileged to discover the talents of people who would otherwise never have gotten a hearing from our racist society, like Colin Powell or Maya Angelou.
Think of all the science that goes into something as familiar as a refrigerator. How many of its parts–how many of the underlying scientific principles–were invented or discovered by Africans? How many of our symphonies did they create? Okay, hardly any, but civilization did actually begin in Egypt, and some people think Beethoven was black. They’ve even invented whole languages, such as Ebonics (though unfortunately never their own writing system). Now isn’t all that WORTH high crime and declining education?
Some people think that the different races can’t live together in peace. Well, to those nay-sayers I just have two words: Tiger Woods!
Jah rule and peace out.