As a kid growing up, Black History month was important to me. Although I am not black, I am a minority and thought it was important to not only celebrate my ethnicity but also other minorities as well.
During my K-12 years, the only time I felt like I ever was able to celebrate Black History month was in elementary school. I just do not believe that it was honored properly, and something needs to be done now to change the way we teach it.
In elementary school, the teacher would acknowledge it is Black History Month, and then put on the movie “Our Friend Martin” and that was it. We did not even talk about it or do anything else.
Nothing was wrong with My Friend Martin it was a good educational movie. If you don’t remember it too well, it was about Miles an African-American student who was at a history museum and travels back in time to different points of Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and then he and his friends continue Martin Luther King Jr.’s work. Here is a picture of the movie cover to jog your memory even more:
I understand now that it is difficult to have conversations about racism and trying to make children understand it. But what we learn as children really stick with our memories so I wish we all could have talked about Black History month is really about.
It’s about celebrating and remembering African-Americans and what they have done for us as a nation and around the world. Black History month is for everyone to celebrate because it is one of the most important life lessons.
I wish I could have learned about all civil rights leaders and what they really did. For example, I remember making a posterboard about Garrett A. Morgan who invented the traffic light which is a really big accomplishment and that was all I knew him for. But it was not until college and we were talking about racism in America and one of his biggest accomplishments was actually inventing the gas mask. A group of workers was stuck in a tunnel after an explosion and Morgan and a team who had gas masks saved these men from the tunnel. Despite his heroic efforts though people did not buy his gas mask once they found out he was African American and in other reports, they did not even claim him as the rescuer.
I wish we all could have an important discussion about racism in America and learn to never judge anyone by the color of their skin and to all see each other equals, because maybe if we were taught properly when we were younger we would not have seen this:
Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream Speech” almost 55 years ago, yet here we are still having to say, Black Lives Matter because we have not reached equality.
Black History Month is so important especially as a young kid and I think seeing what’s happening right now will hopefully change the way we teach Black History Month to children.