Comments on: Ever Wonder Why Black History Month Is the Shortest and the Coldest Month of the Year?

By: Sebastian

Sebastian — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 13:10:02 +0000

I’m going to hate February forever.

By: Arthur Lewin

Arthur Lewin — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 06:41:25 +0000

Yes. Also note how Marcus Garvey and DuBois, in his heyday, are pictured as polar opposites with Garvey seen as a bold nationalist and DuBois, a less daring leader advocating Black integration into American society. However, Marcus Garvey came to America after being inspired by the writings of Booker T. Washington someone so accomodating to the establishment that he said little when African Americans’ human rights were being systematically violated.

By: Patsy

Patsy — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:28:40 +0000

Thanks for your comment Festus. I could add that DuBois also changed at the end of his life. He was living in Ghana and died there on the eve of Dr. King’s famous speech, “I have a Dream.”

By: Arthur Lewin

Arthur Lewin — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 16:07:50 +0000

Thank you, Festus. You have hit the nail on the head.

By: Festus

Festus — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 13:13:25 +0000

To paraphrase the Swedish “white revolutionary Rasta” rapper Promoe, its a “cold world, despite the green house effect”. Black history embodies the blood, sweat and tears costs of that cold world. But the more important point is that the “integration” and “separation” binary often credited to Malcolm X and Dr King is actually a snap shot of a far more complex reality. Dr King began to sound more like Malcolm X later on in his life and Malcolm X moved towards Dr King’s earlier position after his schism with the Nations of Islam. The “integration” versus “separation” binary fight is rather a typical response to historical trauma. For example, Malcolm X’s metaphor of “house” and “field” negro implies the same “integration” and “separation” binary. Dubois and Marcus Garvey had the same sort of debate in the early 20th century. What is consistent across the different contexts is this peculiar modern system of domination based on the European fiction of bio-cultural classification. After all, “segregation”, or as the Dutch called it, “Apart-heid” are all “concepts of white mythology”. Africans evoke connective and relational concepts like “Ubuntu” or “umunne” and “uhuru” not concepts of absolute distinction.My point is that the “integration” versus “separation” binary is a reaction to the “coldness” of the colonizer and the colonial situation.