Ending Black History Month

Back in 1926, scholar Carter G Woodson began Negro History Week, which later became Black History Month in 1976.

A few years ago Morgan Freeman stated that Black History Month was " ridiculous" on live TV. After hearing this a film maker by the name of Shukree Hassan Tilghman had an idea of producing a documentary that would capture different peoples opinions about possibly ending Black History Month. The film was produced and is called "More Than a Month." His strongest opinion began with why is February the month of honoring their history, it is the shortest and one of the coldest months of the year.

Many petitioners agreed with Tilghman and had many things to say about ending Black History Month, such as an unknown petitioner "We exist 24-7, 365, and in a leap year, 366. So should our history." while others completely disagreed with Tilghman like a professor Daryl Michael Scott, called Tilghman naive and asked him to "stop playing post-racial identity games."

Being African-American, Tilghman had grown up with celebrating this month as one of the greatest things, so this came as a shock to everyone.

In your opinion would you agree with Tilghman or would you want to keep Black History Month? Why or why not?

http://whtc.com/news/articles/2012/feb/15/documentary-explores-ending-black-history-month/

Resisting Race Labels in the 2010 Census

In 2010 21.7 million people went deeper than just labeling themselves as "Arab", "Haitian", "Mexican", and "multiracial" on the census. Along with their checked boxes for "other", about half a million black people wrote in more specific answers such as African-American, Afro-American, African, Negro, mulatto, brown and coffee. These people feel that they did not fit white, black, Asian/Pacific Islander or American Indian/Alaska Native, government-defined labels. This news is said to be the cause of a more "diversified America". Carolyn Lieber, a Sociologist professor at the University of Minnesota stated, "It's a continual problem to measure such a personal concept using a check box .The world is changing, and more people today feel free to identify themselves however they want.."

What do you think made so many people go above the expectations to specify their race? Do you agree that it's the result of a more diversified America?