Senior sociology major Taylor Bullock and graduate student in music Jason Brooks design a poster for the list of 2012 events in the Multicultural Affairs office. Yo Han Kim/The Bulletin

For the past 35 years, February has marked the observance of Black History Month. To celebrate the 36th year of the month-long celebration, the Black Student Union will host a variety of events on campus throughout the month.

But Black History Month is not just for students of color, said graduate assistant for the Office of Multicultural Affairs, Jason Brooks. It is also a part of American History.

“Even though it’s phrased ‘Black History Month,’ it’s a part of everybody’s history,” Brooks said. “It’s geared not toward blacks, but (toward) educating our society.”

Chasity Wadley, junior business administration major, said BHM is as equally important to learn about someone else’s culture as one’s own.

“You might meet people and you might have more similar interests in common than you could imagine,” Wadley said. “Students need to support other students.”

BSU president and senior recreation major James Jones said he looks at life from a different perspective because his ancestors suffered but he doesn’t have to endure the same hardships.

“(Heritage) embodies us,” Brooks said. “It’s almost like genetics. It lets you know who you are as an individual. You are allowed to not only blossom as a person, but it (also) sets a platform for your character.”

Several events during February are planned to encourage diversity and education, Brooks said. One of these events includes a showing of the movie “Roots” from Feb. 6-10 at 7 p.m. each night in Roosevelt 110, followed by a discussion.

Wadley said many do not know about their own individual cultures or their different background.

On Feb. 15 in the Memorial Union from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., BSU will have an “Ask a Black Person” box where students can leave anonymous questions.

“Knowing your culture can help you in the future,” Wadley said. “If you are asked about it, you want to be able to know and be proud of it.”

From Feb. 23-26, members of BSU will attend the Big XII Conference on Black Student Government in Norman, Okla. The conference will discuss minorities, including African Americans and their leadership capacities on college campuses, Brooks said. To finish off the month, BSU will host a “Karaoke Night” from 7-10 p.m. on Feb. 28 in Albert Taylor Hall.

The Office of Multicultural Affairs also plans to celebrate Women’s Heritage Month in March, as well as Diversity Week during the first week in April.

Susan Welte

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Ashley Peaches

As we all know, February is black history month. While I’m all for celebrating culture and teaching America’s children about history, I do not believe that we need a black history month.

I don’t think that black history should even be a phrase in our lexicon. Because black history in America is American history.

However, the current school system is not made to be without a black history month and let me explain why. During the 28 days that is February (sometimes 29), children across America are filled with the ideas of the civil rights movement and inspirational leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, W.E.B. DeBois and Booker T. Washington.

The problem with our current system is that most students only learn about black history for the shortest month of the year. And what they do learn are things that will be taught to them over and over again each year (i.e. the civil rights movement). Honestly, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard, read or watched “I Have a Dream.”

An even bigger problem is that while those black people that children are learning about in school are an important part of black history, there are so many more influential black people that are completely skipped over while their white counterpart is taught.

Why don’t children learn about Louis Latimer, the man who discovered a filament that worked better than the filament Thomas Edison discovered, who eventually went on to help build a company called General Electric, aka G.E.?

Why aren’t children taught about Charles Drew, the physician who developed the idea of preserving blood for transfusion – essentially inventing the American blood bank saving thousands of lives during WWII?

Don’t children need to learn about Charles Young, the third man to graduate from West Point Academy who actually stormed San Juan Hill with black Calvary fighters before Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders?

And what about Sidney Poitier, the first black man to win an Oscar and Toni Morrison, the first black person, and black woman, to win a Nobel Prize for literature?

I’m really glad that I got the opportunity to come to Emporia State where I have learned more about my own history in two semesters than I have ever learned from any K-12 classroom.

But when I think about what I did learn, I’m disappointed. Not in the teachers or the university, but really with the fact that I had to take an optional class to learn about what everyone should be learning from day one.

Why is it that part of my history can only be talked about for one month? Why are only certain ideas of what an American is good enough to be taught in American History classes?

My family has been in the United States for hundreds of years, yet I can only find one class on campus (that is only taught every two years) about any part of my heritage.

I think that students should be taught about all Americans in their history classes – American Indians, blacks, women – all of them.

So in the words of Morgan Freeman, you can’t relegate my history to a month: “Black history is American History.” And the idea of having a black history month is “ridiculous.”

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