I remember growing up as a kid and always being excited for February. Sure, my birthday was in that month but I was always excited for February because I got to learn more about my culture and about the people who fought to pave the way for me.

People like Malcolm X, MLK Jr., Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, Crispus Attucks, Booker T. Washington, Thurgood Marshall and so on.

We always made it a big thing when I was in elementary school. We had posters everywhere, an announcement every morning about someone new and a game every day so that we could win prizes if we figured out who the clues were about. We truly went all out for Black History Month.

But soon February would passed, posters came down, the games ended and we went back to normal class operations as if we hadn't missed a beat — learning things in history like Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War, the Cold War, the Vietnam War, and slavery.

As I got older, moving from elementary to middle and middle to high, I realized the big event that once was Black History Month had become nonexistent; a thing of the past. I remember how furious I used to get about it, too. But I soon realized it was all for the wrong reasons.

I’d get upset because I wanted the world to stop for Black History Month when I should've been upset that we were the ones that stopped.

People always say: "but you're black, shouldn't you want to know about your history", and in a way they’re right. I am black and I do want to know about my history, but my history is worth much more than the shortest month of the year, which is primarily recognized for Martin Luther King Jr. and slavery.

Black history is just that, History.

Do we have a Caucasian History Month? No. Mainly because that would just be a normal history/social studies class that we’ve been taught from K – 12 through college.

And no, I'm not speaking from the perspective of an "angry black woman". This is just me trying to show just how ridiculous this month truly is. Our system wants me to fit our entire history — culture, dates, times, definitions, people –into one month, and for the rest of the eleven months learn the same whitewashed history.

That just sounds stupid.

If I decide to have children, I don’t only want them to know about their history, I want them to know about their ancestors and where they come from. I want them to know about the people who came before them, the ones that fought for them to have the same rights as any other kid in our country.

But they won't just learn about it in February for “Black History Month”. For me, black history starts January 1st and ends December 31st. We don't need a month, we need a lifetime just like everyone else.

TC Ranae

Writing since February 2017 · 1 story contributed