Dear Editor,
For the past few years now, my Februaries have become the most boring month of the year. Everywhere I turn, I see silly "celebrations" of my "blackness". Why on this Earth do we black people continue to reinforce an inferiority complex through the guise of these ridiculous "black pride celebrations" remain a mystery.
I am sick and tired of watching programmes like Alex Haley's Roots on local television. The all too worn out musical tributes to our black artists are getting on my nerves! The constant reminders of our slave ancestors being whipped like farmers' mules have long lost whatever effect they were supposed to have on people like me.
I even saw one local media house praising black inventors, who though black, made all of their accomplishments in the white man's societies. I am tired of lies like these that attempt to give the black man credit for using the cultures of others to advance scientifically.
As far as I can see, Black History Month isn't a celebration of the greatness of the black man at all. It's more a celebration of his dependency - and we have been doing that in the most boring of ways.
Why is it that we are filling up our heads with images our ancestors being worked to death - instead of us seeing images of the "great" civilisations that were supposedly built by us? Or is it that in reality, all we have in our history is a people always serving? Black History Month has caused me to seriously doubt some of these "greatness" claims indeed!
Maybe it's because I am more a person of science and proven facts than anything else why I am so fed up with these senseless black celebrations every February.
I see the Americans sending a rover to Mars and ask - where is the black man? I see the Europeans building their giant particle collider and seeking out the mysteries of the universe and ask - where is the black man? I see China and South Korea rising from the ashes of war and when I look at Africa and the black Caribbean I cannot help but ask - where is the black man?
It's a good thing that I have the BBC and some access to the Internet for an alternative. Otherwise, the absence of anything real to celebrate and the apparent fakeness of the claims advanced by these Black History Month celebrations would have driven me to the nuthouse a long time ago.
Michael A Dingwall
michael_a_dingwall@hotmail.com
Black History Month is boring
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For the past few years now, my Februaries have become the most boring month of the year. Everywhere I turn, I see silly "celebrations" of my "blackness". Why on this Earth do we black people continue to reinforce an inferiority complex through the guise of these ridiculous "black pride celebrations" remain a mystery.
I am sick and tired of watching programmes like Alex Haley's Roots on local television. The all too worn out musical tributes to our black artists are getting on my nerves! The constant reminders of our slave ancestors being whipped like farmers' mules have long lost whatever effect they were supposed to have on people like me.
I even saw one local media house praising black inventors, who though black, made all of their accomplishments in the white man's societies. I am tired of lies like these that attempt to give the black man credit for using the cultures of others to advance scientifically.
As far as I can see, Black History Month isn't a celebration of the greatness of the black man at all. It's more a celebration of his dependency - and we have been doing that in the most boring of ways.
Why is it that we are filling up our heads with images our ancestors being worked to death - instead of us seeing images of the "great" civilisations that were supposedly built by us? Or is it that in reality, all we have in our history is a people always serving? Black History Month has caused me to seriously doubt some of these "greatness" claims indeed!
Maybe it's because I am more a person of science and proven facts than anything else why I am so fed up with these senseless black celebrations every February.
I see the Americans sending a rover to Mars and ask - where is the black man? I see the Europeans building their giant particle collider and seeking out the mysteries of the universe and ask - where is the black man? I see China and South Korea rising from the ashes of war and when I look at Africa and the black Caribbean I cannot help but ask - where is the black man?
It's a good thing that I have the BBC and some access to the Internet for an alternative. Otherwise, the absence of anything real to celebrate and the apparent fakeness of the claims advanced by these Black History Month celebrations would have driven me to the nuthouse a long time ago.
Michael A Dingwall
michael_a_dingwall@hotmail.com
Black History Month is boring
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