Picture



Information

My name is BlogXilla.
I am 27 years old.
I'm from Elizabeth NJ now In Atlanta.
I believe In the Power of the P.U.S.S.Y...

Links

FWNBTD Radio! SMCH
The BlogFather
crooks and Liars
become a drug dealer
technorati


Friends

Januari
Liberally Biased
NAMEHERE
NAMEHERE
NAMEHERE

Saturday, March 03, 2007

Now That Black History Month is Over



I read a blog today posted my Complex Simplicity that made me start to think, should Blacks be more considerate of the feelings of our white brothers and sisters. I feel like in order for racism to cease in America there must be a discussion, a conversation about differences, history, and feelings among other things. This conversation should take scale on a major level but since I'm not Oprah, I guess we can settle for my blog. All February long I read blogs by whites that said that Black History Month is all about reverse racism. At first those comments sparked anger and outrage, so much so that I posted the bulletin to one of the blogs which made the girl shut her page down. She later sent me a message saying, she's not a racist and she just didn't know... We agreed to disagree and I haven't heard from her since. I also receive messages from some of my Black readers saying that white people like that would never understand the reasons Blacks feel the way we do, so they just ignore the ignorance. This upset me tremendously and those attitudes are the reason a white newscaster can say something like Barack isn't a true Christian b/c he goes to a Black church and nothing happen. While a Black newscaster... wait a second, there are no major black newscaster anymore now are there?

But after reading a blog today called I hate Black History Month were the writer explained:

...it's not that I hate black history, either, in and of itself. I think all histories are interesting and well worth exposure to because they teach us all where we came from, the psychology of our species through precedent, and warn us against making some of the same historical mistakes our ancestors did. History is full of valuable lessons. I'd be a fool to try and argue against that.
I hate Black History Month because it's reverse-racism in action; it's a segregation of two races, all the same species, with a particular emphasis on one and a palpable exclusion of the other. Personal experience, to prove the theory…?

Now I understand his point, but I would like to explain to all my white readers that I know it might be uncomfortable for you to be around, or watch a documentary about people who look like me being beaten, hosed, hung, ridiculed and oppressed by people who look like you, but here is a suggestion. Take a stance, whites helped in civil rights, whites helped end slavery, and whites helped give the Black people a voice, when ours would not be heard because of the color of our skin. You too can celebrate black history month by letting other white people know of men like Lucretia Coffin Mott (1793-1880 ), a white abolitionist, who emphasized that the ultimate focus of the abolitionist movement was to destroy slavery at the "root and branch." You see the U.S. Abolitionist movement, was led by both Black and white men and women, fighting for the immediate end of slavery and racism. So take pride in that, speak up in a forum of Blacks and whites a like, although some Blacks are still hurt and angry over slavery and racism we are fully aware that YOU did not enslave us, and that YOU don't owe us anything. But by going on the defensive and calling Blacks racist b/c we are still upset over the mistakes of the forefathers of this nation, you do not stand with the great white abolishionist of the past, you become fuel to the 4 alarm blaze of racism in America.

Now I would also like to state on behalf of Blacks everywhere that we know why we have a bad name, there are some Blacks out there who give us all a bad name. But just as all whites are not trailer park trash, all Blacks are not Ignorant street thugs or Niggers. Take the time to get to know each other, You have to understand that the history of whites can be traced back thousands of years. While the Black mans history can only be traced back to what the oldest living person in their family knows. Please understand that i will never know which part of Africa my ancestors came from, I will never know which tribe i came from, or what role my family played in the kingdom of their African village. We can barely find out which slave owner we came from, one of my friends tried and she told me "Well, I tried to find the slave woman who started our family...one of my uncles had researched and traced our family history all the way back to a slave woman named Bendi, but the trail stopped cold there" Imagine how that must feel, I too traced my family back to a man named Junius Valentine of Virginia, I found out that my family mixed in w/ the Saponi Indians but most of us are not that lucky. Call me optimistic but I believe that racism will end one day, and that all it will take is a discussion. But just b/c we have made tremendous progress when it comes to slavery it is not time to sweep it under the rug b/c Blacks and Whites can now drink at the same water fountain and use the same rest room.

Speak

Labels: , , ,



Blogxilla [ 5:03 PM ]

6 Comments:

  • So do you think that pointing out reverse racism is just another form of regular racism?

    By Blogger Valerie, at 6:13 PM  

  • yes, in a way i do, but i don't think its a thing of hate as much as it's a form of not knowing.

    By Blogger Blogxilla, at 6:20 PM  

  • I'm not sure I completely agree. I think some do it out of hate. As for the others... well, ignorance is the beginning of hate. It just seems that way to me.

    By Blogger Valerie, at 6:39 PM  

  • oh yes, there is a little hate in their blood, but doesn't that stem from fear of not knowing. But you're right most of it might stem from hate. there is a girl who comes along my myspace blog who just get so excited when she gets to call blacks racist that i think it does something for her sexually. I love the name of your hometown on your blog too lol

    By Blogger Blogxilla, at 6:47 PM  

  • Thank you! I actually live in Colorado Springs; the same place as Dr James Dobson and Ted Haggard. Yay!

    The "fear of not knowing" I like that. It sounds scary, but hate is scary.

    By Blogger Valerie, at 6:18 PM  

  • So I read your myspace blog and saw what that "lady" and other people said. Just for some clarification on a few points: there is a Hispanic History month, it's from September 15th to October 14th. And a few abolitionists did found a country for blacks in the nineteenth century, Liberia.

    Now to my angry ranting. (this is long and chock full of tmi,sorry)

    We really need an open dialogue ASAP. I've always thought the best way to understand the present was through the past, but when the controversy is the past? Maybe everyone should just lay the past aside for a bit. The problems are NOW. I imagine that racism is alive and well now because when I'm the only minority in a group of whites, I feel "different" not exactly ostracized but not like I fit in either. Not being very dark and I don't speak with an accent, I figure that things must be worse for others. And in other places. The times I felt the most different were in college. I got into college by having no money but some noteworthy extracurriculars, not because I was Hispanic. Seeing as how my college was liberal and small I could see how things would be different in other places. Where being different is being ostracized, that's where the problems are now.

    By Blogger Valerie, at 7:25 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home