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ORIGINAL: SimplySubmissive

One thing I do know, is that I am required to use "Black History" as a theme  for a week in my pre k class. There is no other history included at any other time of the year, these are 4 year olds after all. When talking about any other theme, say.. community helpers, all that, I am very careful to include many races and both genders. It's very difficult to switch gears in my head and speak of only one race. It just feels wrong.. looking at all those little faces.. and only talking about one race. I'd love to do say.. famous inventors.. or whatever.. and represent many races. I feel just as bad doing this week as I would doing "famous white founding fathers"
It just feels wrong to me.. but to say that outloud, is considered racist.
I feel better typing it tho.. thanks for reading.

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ORIGINAL: wickednnc

I don't know why we have a black history month. Or for that matter why there's black entertainment Tv, or why a minority business can hire all minorities, or why there are so many groups in the world today screaming and begging to not be treated equally, but elevated.

I grew up in Southern Applachia, hoeing rows of corn and potatoes so long you couldn't see the end of them. I lived with grandparents who'd never made it out of the depression. Indoor plumbing consisted of a gravity feed from a nearby spring to the kitchen sink. Everything else either happened in a tub or outdoors. I'm in my 40's and spent the first 15 years of my life plowing with mules. I remember seeing my first tractor. Seems like my grandfather made something like 30-40 dollars a week. My first real job (aged 13) paid $1.45 an hour. I held down three jobs and carried a full load to get through college, and was the first in my family to do so.  

So yes, I roll my eyes and have little sympathy for people who want to live in the past and want to tell me how priveleged I've had it as a white male, who want to erase my heritage in favor of their own, and who want me to bend over backwards to kiss their ass. A couple of years ago, a black lady insinuated that the reason I had a 6 figure income and a decent home was because of the suffering of her ancestors. What she, and what a lot of people no longer understand is that you're what you make of yourself. Blame any one you want. Rationalize it any way you want, but in the end, the reason you are who you are isn't because of someone else.

Look in the mirror. It's where the responsibility lies. 

quote:

ORIGINAL: SimplySubmissive

One thing I do know, is that I am required to use "Black History" as a theme  for a week in my pre k class. There is no other history included at any other time of the year, these are 4 year olds after all. When talking about any other theme, say.. community helpers, all that, I am very careful to include many races and both genders. It's very difficult to switch gears in my head and speak of only one race. It just feels wrong.. looking at all those little faces.. and only talking about one race. I'd love to do say.. famous inventors.. or whatever.. and represent many races. I feel just as bad doing this week as I would doing "famous white founding fathers"
It just feels wrong to me.. but to say that outloud, is considered racist.
I feel better typing it tho.. thanks for reading.

quote:

ORIGINAL: wickednnc

The definition of insipid includes terms like bland, uninspired and tasteless, thompsonx. You just hit the mark.

History isn't the problem. The inability to rise above it, is - regardless of what color your skin is. Slavery is a fact of history, and while that practiced here in the US a century and a half ago is probably the most documented and lamented, it is also one of the shorter lived episodes of such. Every race has been enslaved at one point or another, some for thousands of years. The point is simple however. The ability and avenue to succeed exists to any who chooses to apply themselves. The ultimate responsibility for your actions, for your place in life, resides with you, not with anyone else. People who refuse to look past color are equally to blame for keeping the hate alive. That's as true for the Al Sharpton's of the world as it is for anyone else.

One of my favorite authors as a kid was Alexandre Dumas. I don't recall when it was that I learned he was of mixed race, but I do recall that learning that fact made no difference. It was an interesting historical side note. The reason to celebrate him isn't because of his ancestry but because of the magic that poured from his fingertips - and that is how race should figure into perception, as a side note.. by the content of character rather than the color of one's skin. That's where we're supposed to be going, or at least that's where I thought we were supposed to be going.

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[I bet your white face gets you places my black face gets me excluded from.  It's very disheartening that it is that way, but sadly it is./quote]

I bet you it doesn't. And if it happened to, I'll bet you I wouldn't go. Integrity is not shaded by color, but by what you do.

(in reply to BBBTBW)

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ORIGINAL: wickednnc

I bet you it doesn't. And if it happened to, I'll bet you I wouldn't go. Integrity is not shaded by color, but by what you do.

quote:

ORIGINAL: wickednnc

The definition of insipid includes terms like bland, uninspired and tasteless, thompsonx. You just hit the mark.

History isn't the problem. The inability to rise above it, is - regardless of what color your skin is. Slavery is a fact of history, and while that practiced here in the US a century and a half ago is probably the most documented and lamented, it is also one of the shorter lived episodes of such. Every race has been enslaved at one point or another, some for thousands of years. The point is simple however. The ability and avenue to succeed exists to any who chooses to apply themselves. The ultimate responsibility for your actions, for your place in life, resides with you, not with anyone else. People who refuse to look past color are equally to blame for keeping the hate alive. That's as true for the Al Sharpton's of the world as it is for anyone else.

One of my favorite authors as a kid was Alexandre Dumas. I don't recall when it was that I learned he was of mixed race, but I do recall that learning that fact made no difference. It was an interesting historical side note. The reason to celebrate him isn't because of his ancestry but because of the magic that poured from his fingertips - and that is how race should figure into perception, as a side note.. by the content of character rather than the color of one's skin. That's where we're supposed to be going, or at least that's where I thought we were supposed to be going.

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How would you know?  You walk around with your face 24/7. 

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ORIGINAL: wickednnc

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How would you know?  You walk around with your face 24/7. 

I would know because everywhere I go, happens to have all sorts of nationalities and ethnicities floating around. I suppose there are places where "my white face" could get me in as opposed to yours. I've never been to such a place. I don't know where one is. I have no interest in going even if you can find one for me.

That's.. pretty much how I know. And as for the people I know, there's no great conspiracy to keep any race oppressed. I'm sorry to disappoint on that angle, but there just isn't. If anything, there is a heightened awareness of exactly the opposite.

Nuff said. This is a circular debate that goes no where.