More than just a month

Black History Month has just ended, so I believe now is the perfect time to look at the goals and intentions of the month, and how they fit into the history of the University.

In honor of the month, Shriya Sekhsaria has been writing a very informative series in The ‘Prince’ about the history of African Americans on this campus, from the very first evidence of an African American student, way back in 1792, to the feelings of current students with regards to race relations at Princeton. I learned a lot from reading the series, and I am glad it was written.

The ‘Prince’s Black History Month series perfectly encapsulates the purpose of the month: time was taken to honor people who are normally forgotten, because of their race. However, I think we should remember these people year-round, not just in February.

I am not arguing against the existence of a Black History Month. Rather, given the current state of racial tensions that were so clearly highlighted in recent months, something like it is needed all the more. In general, historical trends have shown that the majority of people are not predisposed towards honoring the achievements of black people. Something like this month forces them to do so. This ends up highlighting stories that may have otherwise disappeared.

For example, I never would have learned about the potential existence of an African American student at the University all the way back in the eighteenth century, had Black History Month not provided a platform for that information to be shared.

However, I think that this is a short term solution to a larger problem. The end goal was never to confine the history of Black Americans to the month of February. The existence of Black American history should be celebrated all year round, as part of the larger category of American history. Although Black Americans have had a unique experience in this country, they are still part of the larger American experience.

Again, the point is not that Black History Month is not needed today. Rather, it is necessary more than ever – and the fact that it continues to be needed to this day poses the real problem. Instead of relegating the achievements, the lives, the accomplishments and the histories of Black Americans to a single month of the year, perpetuating a tradition that began in 1976, we should really be working towards making the whole concept of a single “black history month” redundant in the future.

As a country, we would need to work on this from an elementary school level and work our way up. The stories of people like Martin Luther King, Jr. shouldn’t be told only during February. He should be taught as a great American, simply put. Black History Month mainstays such as George Washington Carver and Booker T. Washington should be taught as what they were, scientists and great thinkers, not just answers to trivia questions that only come up once a year.

This is not to say that the race of these men should be ignored and erased, only that it shouldn’t define them.

Black History Month is necessary right now. However, I hope it isn’t in the future. Because if we accept this status quo, without even thinking of changing it, we are accepting a world in which Black accomplishments can only be recognized one month out of twelve.

We are accepting that the people we honor in February accomplished great things, but only relative to their race. I hope that doesn’t have to be true, and that such artificial separations between different types of American history become unnecessary. I want the Black experience to be honored throughout the year, and not only in one month.

We can start on a small scale, by creating monuments or displaying portraits of important African Americans from throughout the University’s history. At a private institution like the University, it is an unfortunate truth that those who are remembered are normally those who are wealthy or come from wealthy families, because they have the money necessary to build buildings or commission plaques with their names. This necessarily precludes many of the early African Americans associated with the University, such as that potential first student, back in the eighteenth century. We can combat this by deciding to honor them anyhow. Displaying portraits of Black Princetonians would have an important symbolic meaning, showing their role in our history, a role that should be acknowledged during all the months of the year.