Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Black history month is a token tribute, but Afro-Latinos don't even have that| Icess Fernandez Rojas | Comment is free | theguardian.com

Black history month is a token tribute, but Afro-Latinos don't even have that| Icess Fernandez Rojas | Comment is free | theguardian.com: I cringe every time February rolls around. For me, black history month has become predictable. First, it's the arguments against it: "What about white history month?" Then up come the defenses: "How come black history month is the shortest month of the year?" Then, when we eventually get around to honoring the heroes and heroines of the hour, we dust off the biographies, documentaries, and frankly, Wikipedia entries, of the following: Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks, and that guy who invented peanut butter. By the time it's the end of the month, we've in fact forgotten what in fact we were meant to be celebrating and move on, confident that we've done our duty.

Yes, February is cringe-worthy for me. But the above reasons, although valid, aren't why I recoil at the calendar. February is the month when everyone forgets that I'm black, too.