Laugh Riot of the Week
By • 3/28/08James Hal Cone doesn’t think kids are learning enough about black history in the schools. In fact, we are in danger of forgetting about slavery.
From Cone’s recent interview with Forbes magazine:
You get can a Ph.D. in history in this country and never learn about black people. It’s not taught in our schools, so people can’t be well aware that black people have a different history.
We didn’t come here on the Mayflower. We came on slave ships, and that runs in our blood, and it’s a part of America’s history. It’s not something we want to forget.
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We hardly need college courses to learn that the blacks came here has slaves; that is what they talk about just about all the time. Only the deaf are spared this information. Anyone who knows much about the history of the Mayflower will know that there were no blacks in that group, so Cone does not need to worry that we have illusions about their having arrived on the Mayflower (I’ve never even considered that possibility; that is pretty arrogant, actually).
What other race has demanded and gotten a whole month dedicated to their history? Do we have a Chinese history month? Do we have a German history month? How about a British history month? Why would anybody, absolutely anybody, think black history is more important than these, other than sheer racial arrogance?
Cone worries way too much. He needs to relax and enjoy being black as the ace of spaces. Just think of the advantages! No need to use a sun blocker!
By on 3/29/08 at 1:01 pm
American blacks currently have a far higher profile than their significance merits, both in media exposure and in their role in historical narrative.
The story of America is not the story of how blacks were treated. It’s just not about them. They’re marginal to the story.
Instead it’s about how white people (specifically the British) and their civilization crossed a great ocean and transplanted themselves onto North America, where they put down deep roots, grew richer and stronger than their motherland, and achieved even greater things.
If not a single non-Briton had ever set foot on this continent’s soil, America would be different, but it would be recognizable, America still. Exclude the British, however, and America would never have happened, regardless of who else comes.
By Irish on 3/28/08 at 11:57 pm