It is BLACK HISTORY MONTH around the WORLD. With that, racism, oppression, discimination and prejudice has risen. Black History month commemorates the freedom of black people, the struggle that we have been through and that we are still going through. I don’t think a lot of people understand the struggle Black people go through everyday, which continues to grow. I honestly belive it is not a coincident that during the beginning of Black History Month, various HBCUs have received more then two dozen bomb threats. Some schools have been locked down and evacuated.
During segregation, Black Americans went to segregated schools, got the worst food, the worst technology and the worst supplies in the country. Additionally, Black Americans were not accepted into white schools or white colleges and universities. In the 60s, a 6-year-old girl named Ruby Bridges made history by being the first African American to attend an all white school. A northern white teacher was more than happy to teach her and be that guide and role model for her and when she was not at home. Ruby was one of the smartest little 6-year olds, and little did anyone know, she would change the world by being black. Before she started making history, in 1957, 9 African Americans made history by entering a school they were prevented from to learn and get an education. This highlights the importance of education for all people in society, regardless of race.
January 31, 2022, Whoopi Goldburg, a Black American Actor, was suspended from the View, a show she hosts, for controversial comments surrounding the Holocaust. She said “the Holocaust was not about race.” In my personal opinion, I completely agree with her, along with many of my friends and teachers. Judaism is in fact a religion and not a race. To me, race is a color. Race is something you can just tell someone apart from all of the rest. Me, being the only black girl in most of my classes, you can tell me apart from my peers because of my skin. The Holocaust was not about race, but it was about religon. Whoopie Goldburg shouldn’t have apologized for saying something that is true. She spoke her mind, she said the truth, and she was brave to do so. A lot of TV channels and other types of media like to twist the world. A lot of people called her out and got upset for what is true. She’s been around for years, and not known to be a racist. To emphasize, RACE is a COLOR. Judaism is a RELIGION. People will argue that it is not, but what they did to Whoppie is what they do to Black Americans who speak the truth.
Did you know that white Americans were not the only ones to build and invent things such as the clock, the microwave or houses. However, we don’t give enough credit to all the black Americans who invented things. Onesimus, an enslaved west African, created an inoculation of the 1716 smallpox disease in America. Prior to this discovery, Cotton Mather, a puritan minister, had purchased him. Mather put Onesimus to the test for an outbreak in 1721 in Boston. British Physician Edward Jenner’s creation of the first vaccine in 1796 was also at the expense of a black woman. Sarah Goode was born a slave, later receiving her freedom due to the civil war. She moved from Toledo, Ohio to Chicago and opened a furniture store. She invented the folding bed, the precursor to the Murphy bed, and became the first African American woman to receive a patent for her invention.
I have a Yin and Yang tattoo on my neck to symbolize how the world works with balance. You can’t have too much dark and too much light in the world or the world will fall out of balance and ascend into chaos. This tattoo symbolizes how black and white need each other. How without African Americans, we wouldn’t have the need for power. Without African Ameicans, we wouldn’t have people like Whoopi Goldberg to speak her mind, as well as Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X or Rosa Parks. Without black musicians like Beyonce, Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson and Whitney Houston, we wouldn’t have music with soul. We wouldn’t have the ability to fight back the injustice that my people have. It is a great thing we have an entire month, a holiday, a day dedicated to us. We should receive much more acknowledgement for the struggle we go through everyday. It’s a struggle to stay alive, but we’re trying. The real question is: Who’s going to help us?
“We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.”
— Martin Luther King Jr.