Being a mixed race person, I always related more to black culture than any other because everyone only ever saw me as half-black. There were people who honestly did not know what the other half of me was. 

I’ve always been fine with that because I am not ashamed of my blackness. I embrace it and am proud of my culture and my history. However, growing up I never knew much about black history. 

Of course I knew your typical black history. I knew that slavery existed and knew about the civil rights movement. I knew who Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King Jr. were. But beyond that, I knew nothing.

February is Black History Month. A time that can be extremely controversial because some people think we should all be colorblind and refuse to show more attention to one race over another. However, there is a difference between and ignorance and equality.

Ignorance is pretending to be “colorblind,” ignoring all of the damage done in the past, and trying to convince people that racism and white privilege are not at all alive today. Equality is seeing people who are different, knowing they are different, and deciding to still treat them as an equal human. It’s acknowledging that black history is not taught enough and is whitewashed in our school systems, and wanting to do something to change it. 

Black History Month actually started as a one time event, Negro History Week, sponsored by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History in 1926. The event inspired many schools and communities all over the country to take part in Negro History Week. Many cities began making Negro History Week an annual celebration and by the late 1960’s it grew to the point of becoming Black History Month.

That being said, Black History Month is something that was intended to and should be celebrated by people all around. It is important not only to black people, but people of all races and backgrounds. 

It is important for people to know their heritage and where they came from. Everyone, especially children, should have people that you can relate to and identify with to look up to. While plenty of those people exist for all races, knowledge of them doesn’t tend to extend much past white people. There are hundreds of black scholars, inventors, and politicians, but nearly none of them are actually well known in society. 

It is important to know the heritage of others. Knowing and understanding others backgrounds and struggles makes a well rounded, educated, compassionate person. Besides, every race is taught all about white history through the American school system, it is time for everyone to learn about other’s as well. 

The American school system plays a large role in the lack of knowledge when it comes to Black History. It is not part of the common core, nor is it required to teach any African American, Native American, Asian American, or Hispanic American history beyond a few small points. The most students really ever learn and remember about other culture’s history is the mass murder of indigenous people when Christopher Columbus “discovered” America, Sacagawea, Japanese internment camps, slavery and civil rights. 

There are of course a few teachers who go above and beyond and take it upon themselves to make sure their students are more culturally diverse. I have seen teachers hand out projects specifically for Black History Month were students must pick a black, influential person whom they have never heard of before to do a project on. 

As much as most schools make it seem, black history did not begin at slavery and it did not end after the civil rights movement. Black history began way before slavery, however, because of it, a lot of that previous history has been erased and forgotten. Black history did and will continue long after the civil rights movement. History is being made every single day.

By ignoring all of the other historical events and people in black history, people are ignoring entire pieces of American History. Not only that, but by only really teaching slavery and the civil rights movement it is highlighting mostly black struggles. Although the abolishment of slavery and the success of the civil rights movement ended up being positives, there are so many other purely positive things in black history that could be taught as well.

There are many black scientists who really pushed the country forward in the field of science that are not very well known, like Patricia Bath. Bath was the first African American woman doctor to receive a patent for a medical invention. That invention being the Laserphaco Probe, which was used to treat cataracts. 

There are many black athletes who pushed the country forward in sports and broke all sorts of records, like Tommie Smith. Smith set a world record in the 200- meter and raised a fist in solidarity with people fighting for human rights at the 1968 Olympics.

There are many black politicians who changed and influenced the way people thought on a variety of topics, like Hiram Revels the first African American member of the United States Senate. The list of people could go on and on.

While schools should educate the youth on some of this history, the truth of the matter is there is only so much a school can do. It is our responsibility to educate ourselves as well. Teachers can only teach so much, it is also our responsibility to educate ourselves and expand our own knowledge.

Black History Month is that time where you can take one month to acknowledge and learn that there is way more to black history than slavery and the civil rights movement. Especially now, when the country is so divided, we need to show how everyone took part in making this country what it is today. America would not be America without people of many different ethnicities and races. 

So, celebrate Black History Month. Go actively educate yourselves about less known black people like Patricia Bath, Tommie Smith, and Hiram Revels, who made a huge impact on this country. Teach your friends, your kids, your parents, talk about it. It should become a regular thing taught in schools and known as basic history, but for right now at least make it a regular thing for the second month of every year.