Sunday, February 26, 2012

Black History Month in a nutshell

I know, I wasn't supposed to write about that topic.

But this will be a pleasant post, I promise.

You will crack a smile.

There is a discussion going on on reddit about the special month, and one post caught my fancy.

I think it's become a joke in schools, or is handled in the complete wrong way. For the last month we've had "moments in black history" on the morning announcements, and yesterday my school held a black history month assembly. This consisted of a lot of gospel singing, a presentation on what the world would be like without black people, a student dressed as a slave being freed by a preacher, and a performance by the school step team. The entire thing was just strange and uncomfortable and nobody actually got anything out of it. It was a poor attempt at explaining black history, but it seemed as if the students presenting knew less about black history than anyone else. The whole thing proved to just be a bad idea.


So I asked, very curious, "What would the world be without black people according to this presentation?".

Basically, they told this whole story of a little boy asking his mom what the world would be like without black people. And she decides, through her apparent magical parent powers, to show him what it would be like. For about five minutes it was basically, "And the boy said, mom, why isn't there a table? And his mom said, because you know who invented the table? Black people. And then the boy tried to brush his hair, but didn't have a comb. You know why? Black people invented it." And then their day through magical no black people land ended with them like, sitting in their living room on the floor with no electricity, no basic objects necessary for survival, and wrinkled clothes. And then the boy suddenly appreciates why black people exist. The end. It was painful to listen to. I was alternating between being amused and horrified.


I have not laughed so hard this year yet.

Thank You, Mr. kellums.

http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/q62wz/should_they_get_rid_of_black_history_month/c3v0oiw

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

So those Europeans invented the spinning loom that weaves cloth, the coliseum, the aqueduct, the telescope, gears, internal and external combustion engines, windmills, ships that could cross and ocean, chairs and even thrones.

But they needed a black man to to create the table for them. Uh - huh.


And to think, when they asked what would the world be without black people, I was picturing Finland.

Off to a re-education camp I go!

Austyn said...

Wow. I want to know what school this guy went to. What a bunch of ignorant people. Putting a bunch of bs facts in a play or act or whatever you wanna call it, in order to make these poooor oppressed blacks feel empowered. A comb? No. A black invented something called a straight comb. A table? No. A table is something like the wheel that was invented (if you can even call it that) back when humans were just learning to walk up right.

Anonymous said...

You do realize that Sub-Saharan blacks never even got around to inventing the wheel don't you? 10,000 years and no wheel! But then again neither did the American Indians

david2112 said...

Knee grows is so stupid, just axe ae1

AmericanGoy said...

Lay off the stuff, david2112...

Or explain your incoherency, please.