ebruary marks the 72nd observance of Black History Month. For the next 28 days, programs, observances and celebra-tions will take place across America in pursuit of the same dreams and desires officially ushered in by Negro History Week in 1926.
Has America overcome its racist past? Black History Month:
Six humans trapped by happenstance in dark and bitter cold each one possessed a stick of wood or so the story's told.
Their dying fire in need of logs one woman held hers back for on the faces around the fire she saw that one was black.
The next one looking across the way saw one not of his church. And couldn't bring himself to give the first his stick of birch.
The third one sat in tattered clothes and gave his coat a hitch. "Why should my log be used to aid the filthy rich?"
The rich man just sat back and thought of the wealth he had in store and how to keep what he had earned from the lazy, shiftless poor.
The black man's face bespoke revenge as the fire passed from his sight. For all he saw in his stick of wood was a chance to spite the white.
The last man in this forlorn group did not give except for gain. Giving only to those who gave was how he played the game.
Six logs held tight in death's still hands was proof of human sin. They didn't die from the cold without. They died from the cold within.
The Cold Within Then, as now, the hope and perception is that by celebrating and sharing the roles and contributions of black people in American life with others, a mutual respect would develop. As a result, the impact of all Americans would be so appreciated, so accepted, and so understood, that there will no longer be a need for any ethnic group to call attention to their exploits. Unfortunately, far too many assume that we are accepted, have arrived, and that racism is something that was "taken care of" in the '60s. After all, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 killed Jim Crow, housing discrimination is now illegal, and after heading the world's mightiest military power, a black person was considered a serious candidate for president. But has America actually overcome its racist past? Of course not. Even the most casual reader of newspapers must admit that racism persists in many forms Ñ some overt, some subtle. Physical attacks on blacks, racial clashes in America's cities, wide-spread incarceration of black youths, and stereotypes with racial over-tones such as the jive-talking hyena and "Ebonics" are very much a part of America in 1998. The mood in America today is to deny any responsibility for the inequalities of the past that still haunt black Americans. Thus, the call to end affirmative action programs and public assistance in the form of welfare. If our goal is to be appreciated, accepted and understood, then we must demonstrate our resolve by being believers in the tenets of hard work, integrity and determination. We must not be swayed from our positive purpose by naysayers and ne'er-do-wells. We must refuse to be blocked by the barriers to black progress that continue to be erected. Why Black History Month? It's been said, that by understanding the past, one gains insight into their present situation. Then Ñ and only then Ñ can they chart a course that will further their aims as human beings, black people, Americans, mothers, fathers, etc. And if it takes another 72 years, it won't be from lack of trying.
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