Welcome to this week’s Five Minute Friday. Our instructions, via creator Kate Motaung: “Write for five minutes on the word of the week. This is meant to be a free write, which means: no editing, no over-thinking, no worrying about perfect grammar or punctuation.”
Today’s prompt: AGREE
My social media feed is already full of people who don’t agree that there should be a Black History Month (or people who anticipate others will disagree with them about whether the month should exist or not).
I haven’t seen (yet) anyone say “but why isn’t there a white history month?” Maybe those people have gone farther underground (I doubt it). Maybe I’ve just missed it.
Maybe I don’t have enough knowledge to fill for five minutes explaining why it’s a different thing to have a Black History Month.
Someone on social media today (I wish I could remember who) encouraged white people to learn ONE THING a day this month about the role of a black person in history. I think that’s a great idea.
Those of us who are not black have often had blindfolds on (intentionally or not). We didn’t learn about the contributions of black people throughout history. We couldn’t feel, tangibly, the pain of discrimination, slavery, confinement, prejudice.
Yet here we all are. It’s 2018 and we disagree. We disagree about what deserves a “special month,” about what identifies us. We struggle to find common ground.
Let’s see over the course of the month what about the history of being black can show us about each other. We may agree when it’s all said and done that we need longer than February to give the topic its due.
Editor’s Note: First of all, I confess I went over the five minute limit (again) tonight (sorry not sorry). Second, the hyperlinked word at the end of the post is intentional. As I chose the word “due,” I was thinking about Patricia Stephens Due, a woman who participated in a sit-in in Tallahassee in 1960 at the age of 19 and went on to make a tremendous difference for civil rights.
This post is part of the weekly Five Minute Friday linkup.
Wife of one, Mom of two, Friend of many. My pronouns are she/her/hers.
people will always struggle to find common ground…. some more so than others. I’ve recently read some good middle school books about the topic of black history. Some very hard times….and yet some good times thrown in the mix.
I agree (no pun intended!). Middle school (and before) are such great times to start teaching black history (and many other types of history that haven’t gotten their fair share of time in the spotlight). Looking forward to a more unified time in our world!
Agree so much with you friend. We aren’t always good at learning from those that are different than us. I’m in the 48 spot this week.
Yes – exactly. This topic deserves so much more than five minutes……… I’m looking forward to reading yours.
Well-said. I’m still waiting for Mongolian History Month, something that does NOT involve a Mongolian Grill.
Well, OK. I guess it can.
It could involve a Mongolian Grill! You never know – there’s a new commemoration every day it seems! Thank you for stopping by.
Yes, it’s so important to be open minded!
Yes! And an ongoing learning process. Thanks for dropping by.
Thanks for sharing! I agre. We need to awareness and respect to go longer than a month. Your post inspirers time to give that more consideration this month for sure.
I love that, Jena! 🙂