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It took me a while, but I've finally calmed down, though I did have to count to ten and a half. One more Black History month has gone. This one, though, was different.

     The Royal Gazette - the 'white' paper that the PLP loves to hate, but that the Minister for Labour and Home Affairs sometimes looks and sounds good in (could it be because, out of the whole bunch, he's the best?) ran a series that placed emphasis on, and that largely featured, black Bermudians and the black experience in Bermuda.

      I thought it a good series. Certainly, it was a good attempt at highlighting black history that is relevant to Bermuda and Bermudians. But true to form, showing how deeply embedded they are in some kind of racial rut, the people who love to hate the Gazette once again ran a host of expensive radio ads that featured - you guessed it - American blacks. The one that stuck most in my Bermudian throat was the ad about Thurgood Marshall.

        Now Thurgood Marshall has an important place in the history of black Americans. If Thurgood hadn't won his 1954 Supreme Court case, there'd have been no black man sitting - today - in the Oval Office. So mighty Obama stands on the shoulders of Thurgood Marshall.

       But here in Bermuda, I and all other black Bermudians owe our Bermudian freedoms and our place in our Bermudian society to people like the quiet men and women of the Progressive Group. To people like 'Lois' and 'E.T.' and Mazumbo and 'Mose' Allen and Joe Mills and ....

      Thurgood M and Martin L and Malcolm X did their stuff in America for Americans. All over the rest of the world, other black men and black women were fighting - and winning - their battles for their people in their many different countries. Kwame in Ghana; Jomo in Kenya; Mandela in South Africa; Eric in Trinidad; Busta in Jamaica. And Obama-come-lately in America.

      Black history is not the history of the black man in America.  Black history is a history that starts before the time when Brits in Britain were uncivilized blue-painted savages running half-naked through their Brit forests. Before the Brits discovered blue paint, Ethiopian Kings - black, African - were ruling stable empires. Ethiopians were doing this before the Europeans got around to writing the Bible, and thousands of years before America entered recorded history.

     I'm convinced that someone has gotten at Bermuda's educators, taken out their brains, and replaced them with something 'made in America'. With this American-made grey matter, all these educators seem to see is black America. All they know is the Johnny-come-lately history of black America. All they know are black American racial icons - good people all - but still only late-to-the-party Americans.

      Let's be fair and honest.

      For 2010 - scrap black history month. In 2010 - teach all history. Teach Menelik, Mandela, 'Mose' Allen, and yes, teach Mugabe too. Teach all black history. Good and bad. Teach it all, teach it well, and teach it honestly. Teach it year-round.

     Much of what is currently taught in history lessons is nothing more than one group's perspective on the past. For instance, a still commonly taught concept is that Columbus 'discovered' America. But the indigenous peoples of North America, who had been living there for more than 10,000 years, are deeply offended by that European perspective.

     So open minds. Open books. Open history. Teach all history. Teach that mankind has evolved in many ways over many continents. Look honestly at this history and you'll make a quiet discovery.

     You'll discover that every race, every tribe, every clan has a history of past oppression, of past struggle, of past - some distant and some recent - downing of barriers and freeing of peoples. You'll discover that slavery is still with us; that genocide is still with us; that segregation, discrimination, and all kinds of prejudices are still with us.

     The point of history is that it enables us to recognize past mistakes, past wrongs, and past evil. If we can learn from history, we won't retain and carry forward so many prejudices and hates, and we won't repeat our mistakes. That way, we have a better chance of making tomorrow's world a better world - and making today a fairer day.

      So please, no more Black History Month. No more, ever again.

Just teach history. Teach it all, teach it well, teach it honestly. Teach it all year.[[In-content Ad]]

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