February Black History Month

Why is February called Black History Month?

In an effort to make it official in 1976, President Ford named February "Black History Month" in a commemorative speech. In the speech, he urged Americans to "seize the opportunity to honour the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavour throughout our history."

Me, Black History Month and Black History

In the UK Black History Month is October, but really we should be aware of this every day. My problem is I am a white man brought up in an environment where racism was generally the norm along with misogyny. I was never easy with it and when my dad (an ex boxer who had to retire because he cut too easily) championed Muhammad Ali I thought that was great until he started questioning why he changed his name from Cassius Clay. He is still racist today though good to me.

The thing is the denigration and abuse of indigenous people and people with different colour skin has been going on for five hundred years and more, and although we are slowly addressing this slowly it is amazing how racism is still rampant and accepted at the highest levels in most western countries.

I live in a road, the couples either side of me are white, but either side of them we have Asian and Turkish families and further up the road, my default taxi driver is Indian and between him and Turkish family is a Hindu friend with the broadest geordie accent you will ever hear and a beard you could hide a badger in.

I remember walking down the West Road during some Festival and I was the only white person there and thought how amazing it is to be part of such a gorgeously cosmopolitan society.

I have seen so many racist attitudes in my life, a lot very recently, and have displayed racist traits myself.

Ionce got on a bus and almost everyone on there was either Italian or Romanian, and thought it’s like I’m in a foreign country, then stopped. I was , I was in Dublin. It didn’t bother me but that little thought made me think.

Many years ago I moved. I had a choice of doctors and went for the white Irishman rather than the Hawaiian doctor. The Irish Doctor just prescribed Panadol for everything, and spoke to people who eulogised the Hawaiian Guy. The Hawaiian doctor spotted my two year old daughter had an Ovarian Cyst which probably saved her life, and even once leant me his Mercedes , although that debt was repaid when he needed to visit patients while his car was off the road. When my youngest daughter was suspected of having meningitis his wife came to the school and took her to the hospital but luckily it was a false alarm, but what wasn’t false was the care the doctor and his wife showed my family.

If we look back in art we see so many black writers and composers who have been ignored or belittled. Although a lot of his behaviour was not good, Chuck Berry’s “Maybellene” was co-credited to Alan Freed and this often happened to black artists.

For Black History Month we should take time to discover achievements by all indigenous people, and be aware of how they have been oppressed, suppressed and abused and in many ways still are.

Things are improving slightly but racist suppression has been going on for over five hundred years and it will take more than five hundred years to put this right. We are all human, we should stand up for all and treat everyone equally well.