Wednesday, February 04, 2015

Black History Month

Last year was the first time I really celebrated Black History Month on the blog. In my post "Welcome, February" I discussed a few reasons why I thought Black History Month was important and a few of my goals for February 2014. Below is a list of the posts from last year (and each title is a link to its respective post).

As you can see below, most of the topics I covered last year were rooted around specific people. This year, however, I want to talk more about concepts, ideas, and culture. One thing I've noticed during my years attending predominately white schools and having circles of friends that are more diverse, is that the major factor in racism and prejudice is ignorance. There is a lot about black culture that many non-blacks just don't know. Often this lack of awareness rears its head in the form of ignorant assumptions and awkward questions. So this month, I wanted to touch on topics that while they may be extremely familiar to blacks, may not be familiar to non-blacks.

I titled the series Legends of Africa, because while researching mythology I found a lot of interesting mythology from the continent of Africa that is largely swept under the rug. In our culture--American culture that is--it isn't shocking when people don't know information pertaining to non-white cultures. It should be. But it's not, because everything else is swept under the rug. So I'm lifting the rug (at least in part).

I hope you'll check back for more throughout the month. Feel free to comment and join in the celebration.


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