Black History Month

The longer I stay in this country, the more aware I become of how absolutely necessary the idea of Black History Month is. With this increased awareness, however, comes the increased frustration of seeing it turned into a marketing tool and watching the history of black people in this country and wordwide reduced to MLK's "I have a dream" speech and George Washington Carver's work on peanuts.

I have a little cousin in middle school who is growing up with this as his perspective on black achievement. At least in Ghana he'd have gotten a decent education on the history and beliefs of the major ethnic groups plus colonial/postcolonial Ghanaian history. Plus he would have gotten to see the forts and castles where slaves were kept before being shipped off. Now, granted, The history curiculum back home needs to be widened in scope. A lot of my knowledge comes from personal research and college classes but compared to what he gets taught ,he has less to start with than I did. Thankfully he has his mother and his cousins to fill in the gaps.

For my own peace of mind, though, I will be making a couple of posts, mostly about black people in the sciences. Enjoy