Happy Black History Month

Ok, so I've been celebrating Black History Month for as long as I remember as today I learned something that I don't remember ever learning. Not saying that I didn't, as my memory is not as long as it used to be lately! Any way: one of my writing idols (Kevin Powell) posted on facebook this morning about the "founder" of the month we celebrate. [To be fair my BFF posted some similar fact some hours after Kevin Powell. Wait, how'd she know about this and not tell me?]

Kevin Powell

FEBRUARY is Black History Month. Carter G. Woodson founded "Negro History Week" in 1926, which marked beginning of this celebration. Woodson didn't get his high school diploma until his early 20s, but later earned a Ph.D. from Harvard, second African American to do so, after W.E.B. DuBois. Carter G. Woodson is widely considered "The Father of Black History."

So this prompted me to look for even more information and I came across this website:

About.com Black History Month's history

We've all heard the jokes about Black History Month being the shortest month of the year, but when looking at the history of it all, does it really matter? Especially now: The President of the United States of America is black, the richest self made female billionaire (information may be outdated) is black...Am I saying its changed to be black in America since the that first Black History week, in some ways but in some ways it's the same. Racism still exists...


The theme for Black History Month 2011 is African Americans and the Civil War. I want to take a different spin on this theme. Not to take anything away from the contributions that the soldiers that fought in the Civil War made but there is a different type of Civil War that I'm concerned about.


The definiiton of civil war according to wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn is a war between factions in the same country. And factions being defined as a group of people connected by a shared belief or opinion within a larger group by wikipedia.org. The "Civil" War that I'm concerned about is the one in my own and your own backyard. Our young men are killing each other over drugs, cars and just to get a "rep". Our young women are killing each other over these same young men and we are killing each other by not protecting themselves from HIV.  And they are killing the spirits of the youth with all the negativity! In this war there are so many battles yet to be won that it becomes increasingly difficult to see an end near. The real Civil War ended when the Confederate army surrendered. The gangs, hoodlums and others that just don't give a f*$& are the equivalent to the Confederate army but they are not going to surrender. They don't care, they only see their way of life and it's not that they don't know any better or haven't seen the other side of the coin, they just don't care. But it's the same lack of caring that keeps the North(the hardworking, law abiding citizens) from gaining in this war. If we only care what happens in our house, with our family, where is the love for people on a whole?

What did you take away from this year's Black History Month?