My Letter to the Editor for Loyola's School Newspaper

It has been 80 years since historian Carter G. Woodson founded Negro History Week which has now become known as Black History Month or African American Heritage Month. In the eyes of some setting aside one month in which to focus on black history seems exclusive, some would argue that doing something such as this fails to encourage inclusivity, and racial harmony.

There are those who would argue that Black History Month is used in order to guilt trip those who are well-represented in American society. Some say that black history month focuses too much on making people feel bad about slavery, discrimination and rascism.The fact is there are instances in which one can feel overburdened and pressured into feeling a certain away about the realities of our past. So often we are taught and conditioned to be have certain feelings, to do certain things, and to react in certain ways.

Some of my non-black friends have remarked that they don't have a problem with the heritage of African-Americans and other blacks being celebrated, but that at times they do feel that they are being blamed for the sins of the past.

Some of my African-American and black friends feel that one month isn't enough time to celebrate the past, present, and future of African-Americans, and other blacks. "Why did they have to give us the shortest month of the year?" "Why can't our history be taught 365 days a year?" "When will we recognize there is more to our history than slavery and the civil rights movement?"

There is an abundance of questions, an abundance of concerns on both sides of the issues.
Some people have asked, who is doing anything constructive with the abundance of history that we have at our disposal? Is Black History Month being used to create some sort of a dialogue to resolve still unsettled issues?

The Academy Award winner Morgan Freeman, an African-American with roots in the American south, and someone, who in his career has had to overcome racism and discrimination, said that the idea of Black History Month is "ridiculous" and he later added, "I don't want a Black History Month. Black history is American history."

We all bear a certain amount of responsibility for the mistakes of the past. "It's been said that every future has a past," and it's our job to recognize our past, and our present, and not make the same mistakes in the future.

Black History and African-American should be celebrated on a regular basis they are a part of fabric of this nation and the world.

All our stories, all our histories, all our heritages are pieces of a puzzle, a puzzle which wouldn't come together if we didn't have all the pieces. This month is our chance to get a more complete history to come to an understanding of underrepresented peoples, of unreported stories, the his-tories and the her-stories of a complex people.