After seeing how some people want to obliterate the history of the South, because some of it is ugly, I am none too sympathetic toward anyone who wants to pretend anyone's history is irrelevant. I see no way I can defend the right to have my own ethnic and cultural history recognized, while insisting that someone else's be forgotten. History (all of it) has value, and that includes Black history; in fact, I see no honest way to recount the history of the South, old and recent, without it. Martin Luther King is as much a part of Southern history as Robert E. Lee. That remains true, even when a few bigots on both sides of the racial divide misuse both for hateful purposes. There's nothing on this earth that can't be put to bad use by those so inclined.
So essentially you're saying that there should be a white history month?
Should "special interest" groups be able to forbid the use of the Confederate flag because "they" don't like it?...but it's part of our history...how can it be obliterated because negroes don't "like" it? That's dishonest.
How about this:
Since the following groups all exist for negroes, wouldn't it be fair to have parallel "white" groups?
Should there be a White Legislative Caucus?
White Entertainment Network?
White Miss America?
White Mayors Association?
National Society of White Engineers?
National Assoc. of White Journalists?
National White Nurses Assoc.?
National Organization Of Whites in Govt,?
Association of White Psychologists?
White Data Processing Associates?
National Association for the Advancement of White People?
National Association of White Accountants?
National Association of White Telecommunication Professionals?
National Organization for the Professional Advancement of White Chemists & Chemical Engineers?
National Society of White Engineers?
...etc...etc..etc...hundreds more.
Evidently there are more racist negroes based on the number of exclusively black organizations...even in government.. Isn't that a method of segregation?..to cluster around your own race and purposely exclude other races?
There certainly are NOT business, political, professional groups exclusively for white people in this country, are there?
Let's look at this. First, no, I'm not suggesting a "White History Month". "World History", as taught at the public school level has been and largely still is "the history of Western civilization (which means it is for the most part a history of White Europeans, (both in Europe and on other continents). U.S. history as similarly taught, is and has been largely a history of White people in America. There's no lack of White European history; however, it's not the whole story. We need to add in the history of other regions abroad, and other races and cultures at home, if we are to have a more full and complete recounting of history.
Second, history is messy; it is not a simple morality play. We might think it convenient to selectively cut out whatever interferes with such a simplistic interpretation, but to do so is neither wise, nor truthful. Presentism (judging the actions of people of earlier times by the by our current cultural standards, rather than those of the time they lived in), is a very fashionable historical fallacy these days, but it's still a fallacy. History tells us what we have done well, and what we have done badly, and ignoring selected parts of it in order to spare any of us hurt feelings, or make ourselves feel better, defeats that purpose. Historical truth is what it is, good, bad, or even downright ugly. Whether it's the American Revolution, the War Between the States, or the Civil Rights struggle, we can find heroes and scoundrels on both sides; we can see people doing the wrong thing, for well-intended reasons, and people doing the right thing, for all the wrong reasons. Few human beings, past or present, were or are entirely angelic or demonic.
As for the Confederacy, my own ancestors were Confederate soldiers. Like their Union counterparts, most were ordinary men, caught up in a terrible war that is still a national tragedy. I admire their valor and sacrifice. Soldiers on both sides had views and beliefs I would not share today; had I lived in their time I might have been no better. That said, they are, all of them, American soldiers, and none of them deserve to be forgotten, or have their memory trashed, their graves vandalized, or their monuments torn down. The Confederate Battle Flag (the one that causes all the uproar) was a soldier's flag, not the flag of a nation; it was strictly a battlefield standard. In that respect, it is an American flag, and like Old Glory, should displayed with dignity and respect. Neither should be desecrated, neither belongs on a belt buckle, or on a shirt with questionable slogans; neither should ever be waved in anyone's face as a taunt, or be misused as an emblem of hatred. That Battle Flag is now a flag of history, and of the fallen. Leave it to the dead, to their graves and monuments; surely, if it belongs to anyone, it belongs to them. Leave it to historical ceremonies and re-enactments; that is its rightful place among the living.
As for organizations, minorities, feeling excluded from the social mainstream (often with justification), have banded together to look out for the interests of their group, when they felt no one else would. It seems a human enough thing to do, for those who feel they are still on the outside, looking in. I hope there will come a day (though I may not live to see it) when such things are no longer needed. We, as a society, are not there yet; the resentments too often expressed here show that. Maybe someday, race won't matter, but right now, it still does. In the meantime, I would ask just what harm you believe any of these organizations have done to harm you; I can't see that they have done anything to harm me.
