A good friend asked me yesterday why are African-Americans the ones who get to have a Black History Month.  Why not a Korean History Month or an Iranian History Month?  Her question was sincere and probably common, so I thought today’s blog would be a brief explanation for the rationale behind ideas like Black History Month.  Let me preface this by saying that I’m a lily white hillbilly from East Tennessee, hardly an expert on the African-American experience, but my mentor in graduate school was Dr. Reginald Martin.  He is an expert on the subject and taught me quite a bit.

First and foremost, the difference between African-Americans and every other group in this country is that they are the only ones who were brought here exclusively against their will.  Virtually every other group of people in this nation made a choice to cross the ocean and come here to begin a new life.  Africans were captured, taken from their homelands, stuffed into the hulls of ships, sold on an auction block like cattle, and held as slaves until their deaths.  There were laws on the books that stated that having African blood meant a person was less than a full person.  It was illegal, under punishment of death, to teach a slave to read and write.  While other ethnic groups fled persecution in their homelands, African-Americans were brought here for the purpose of persecution.  Other than Native Americans, no other group was treated as inhumanely and with so little dignity, and that is the primary distinction between African-American history and Korean-American history, for example.

After “slavery” ended, for 100 years, African-Americans were segregated from white society.  In many places, it was illegal for a black person to eat in the same establishment as a white person.  Black men could be lynched just for looking at a white woman.  During that 100 years, African-American soldiers went to war, served their country, often earned the respect of white soldiers, rose in rank in the military but then returned home only to be greeted, not as heroes, but as second-class citizens.  African-American men, regardless of age or social standing, were referred to as “boy” by white men of all ages.  That particular word still evokes strong emotions from black men.

During the 400 years of slavery and the subsequent 100 years of segregation, white scholars often disavowed historical achievements by black people.  My generation was the first to be taught that peanut butter, potato chips, and traffic lights were all invented by African-Americans.  Before that, those facts were ignored and left out of American history.  How many of my readers have even heard of Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, or Benjamin Banneker?  Each of these men had a profound effect on American history, but for well over a century their contributions were not mentioned in history textbooks.

The spirit behind Black History Month is not to segregate African-American history from white history.  Rather, the intent is to highlight historical figures who have not received adequate credit in mainstream history.  If racism and segregation were dead, I would concede that Black History Month has outlived its purpose, but the upswell of hate since Mr. Obama’s election proves that racism is very much alive.  While I personally had nothing to do with slavery or segregation, my country did, and until the day comes when hate and bigotry have been extinguished from human consciousness (I am not so naive as to think that will happen anytime soon but I am still hopeful that maybe one day), we need things like Black History Month to illustrate contributions from African-Americans that can dispel the myth that black people are brutish and incapable of complex cognitive functions.

Personally, I promote the notion that we should also have a Native American History Month because mainstream history has been very unkind and inaccurate in the depictions of the native cultures of this continent before Europeans arrived, but that is another topic for another day.

On a side note and as a shameless plug for my series, The Brotherhood of Dwarves uses American slavery and racial tension as the backdrop for the series.  Many of my depictions of the orc plantations are from Frederick Douglass’ autobiographical depictions of his childhood as a slave.

Recently, I’ve been criticized for my counter-attack on the right-wing fear and hate mongering that’s been spreading for the last year and a half, but I will not back down from my stance that most of hate that’s being spewed from the right falls into one of two categories: either emotional knee-jerks from the old money elite who feel threatened by “new blood” getting into the arena or thinly veiled racism from willfully ignorant white people who are terrified of no longer being the majority.

Let me be clear about one thing.  Not every person who calls himself or herself a conservative is a racist, but nearly all racist, bigoted, homophobic people out there consider themselves conservative.  If you aren’t a racist or a bigot or a homophobe, you probably aren’t one of the people I’m counter-attacking.  If you aren’t trying to impose your religious ideology on me, you probably aren’t one of the people I’m referring to.

But if you dislike our current president because of his ethnicity or you feel like this nation should be a Christian state without religious tolerance or you think that homosexuality is a disease that must be cured, you and I have some serious disagreements, and you probably won’t like my opinions.  To me, that hate and bigotry is the disease that needs to be cured.

After Tiger Woods won his first Masters Title, Fuzzy Zoeller infamously said, “tell him not to serve fried chicken next year. Got it.  Or collard greens or whatever the hell they serve.”  That’s racism, bold and unveiled.  Glenn Beck is more subtle, but the undercurrent is the same.  Signs like, “Don’t Tax Me, Bro!!!” are yet another example of  racism from conservatives.

If you want to live in a nation that is a religious state and does not tolerate racial differences, move to Iran or Sudan .  Those are the kinds of countries you are looking for.  For me, I’d rather live in a Democratic Republic in which the government does not promote one form of religion and allows people to rise from being a poly-racial son of a single mom surviving on meager means to leader of the free world.

In pure economic terms, when the current president took office, the economy was hemorrhaging 750,000 jobs a month and the Dow Jones had lost nearly half its value.  Today, under the leadership of this administration, the economy is beginning to create jobs again and the Dow has regained about 60% of what it had lost.  Any rational person can look at those two facts and see that Barrack Obama is not a left-wing socialist radical ruining this country.  He’s much closer to a moderate reformer who is making great strides at returning our economy to prosperity.  And prosperity for the majority, not just the old-money elites at the top.

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My biggest guilty pleasure is American Idol.  I love it.  There’s something about watching how the contestants react to the competition that gets me.  Some crumble and fall apart, like Didi Benami, who just never put together a solid performance during the live shows.  Others, like Tim Urban, are so clueless and untalented, they don’t even realize the magnitude of the opportunity.  How that dude has made it into the top nine baffles me.  By far, he is the least talented and least entertaining of the twelve.

Then, there are those who rise to the occasion.  Every time she takes the stage, Crystal Bowersox delivers.  The power and beauty of her voice are so natural and effortless that I’m nearly moved to tears during each performance.  Lee Dewyze has won me over with his willingness to listen to criticism and push himself as a performer.  Siobhan Magnus has an amazing voice, but she needs to break out of this one-trick pony show she’s fallen into.  Michael Lynche brings it every single performance.  I don’t particularly like the tone of his voice, but the dude can flat out sing.  My personal favorite is Andrew Garcia.  I just love the sound of his voice.  There’s a unique tone to it that has an undercurrent of sadness that moves me.  He probably won’t win the contest, but I’m hopeful that he’ll have a strong career.

I’m sick of Ryan Seacrest.  I’d like to see Simon reach up and slap the dog shit out of him the next time he does that poodle yapping stuff in Simon’s face.  I’m not sure if Seacrest has just gotten brazen since it’s Simon’s last season, or if the producers think that’s good for ratings, or if he’s developed a coke habit that’s turned him into an obnoxious asshole, but after the first time, the act got old.

Speaking of Simon, he’s a great example of how the precious butterfly syndrome has turned us into a nation of wimps.  The audience boos him whenever he offers any criticism to the contestants.  Most of the time he’s correct, and most of the time he’s being constructive, trying to show the contestants what they need to do to improve as singers and performers, but because he isn’t telling them what wonderful, unique snowflakes they are, the audience boos him.  Sure, he has said some nasty things during some of the auditions, but he rarely says anything that isn’t true.  People who can’t sing shouldn’t delude themselves into thinking that they can make a living at it.  Sometimes, they need to hear an ugly truth to bring them back to reality.  On the live shows, his comments are almost always geared to pointing out weak points in a performance.  We learn and grow from our mistakes, and Simon isn’t afraid to point out those mistakes because that’s his job.

So that’s my guilty pleasure.  I’m sure somewhere the last cool club that still had me as a member just shredded my card, but I can’t help myself.  It’s a fun show.