Quote:
Originally Posted by TAS33
Why is it necessary to ahev any race called anything other than people. … Black history month wont make them the same because they are doing the same thing and making themselves different. It should still be recognized but as part of all history not just black history. …
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Think back on your high school "world history" class. The ones I can remember focused on Europe: Greece, Rome, the European middle ages, the renaissance, enlightenment, and so forth. Other regions were acknowledged to exist, but were not discussed in detail.
The simple truth is that "they"
are different, as we all are. I got a lot of English history in history class, but I'm an American German ... where did the Germans come from, and what did they do in the US? (Well, in Texas, they got arrested and imprisoned for not wanting to fight in the Civil War. After all, they came to the US because of its
freedom and didn't want to fight in a war on the side of slavery.)
I once talked with a very white-bread guy about this issue. He complained that everybody had to be different and wondered why they couldn't just conform. I asked him to what ... to the way English-speaking Americans do Thanksgiving and Christmas and Easter and all that? Yeah, that's what he meant. Well, I asked, why is your way the standard to which others have to conform? Christmas trees are German, you know, and didn't enter the English and American heritage until Queen Victoria's Prince Albert introduced them at Buckingham Palace. He seemed a little disturbed at having to look at his own culture as just one culture among many, and not as "the" culture to which others are compared.
I have heard black people say that white culture is set up to make everything "black" seem bad. Given a lot of usages in English, I can understand how someone might come to that conclusion. But in response, I'd say, hey! Whatever happened to "Black is Beautiful"? Don't make up stuff about how mean all white people are; instead, do stuff to show that you do have a heritage to be proud of. That's what multiculturalism is about.