Black History Month = Bullshit

Let's just get straight to the point - I cannot stand Black History Month. As a person that went to a high school, which mainly consisted of black people or people from black origins, this came as a shock. I mean, I'm black. I should obviously like a month that's dedicated to the history of the black man and shows the things that the Negro race has achieved over the past years. But is it really necessary? Do we seriously need a particular month dedicated to a section of history?

No. We don't. It's utter bullshit.

Firstly, the history events that are taught in black history month do not contain black history that affects the majority of black people.  I remember getting pissed off in school assemblies when Martin Luther King's famous speech 'I Have a Dream' was shown, and students were quoted it word for word. I remember how much my blood boiled when Rosa Parks' bus story was told in English lessons and how pompous people became when they heard about it.

Don't get me wrong - I appreciate all the things that these black individuals have done or achieved. Martin Luther King's speech is absolutely brilliant, no doubt about it. And I find it great how Rosa Parks made a stand in the bus and created the bus protests in the '60's. However, even though these events have had an impact on history, they are not the only thing that make up black history. And yet, they seem to be the only events that we are educated about. Also, they only affected Americans in the 60's and the not the other 90% of black people around the world

Secondly, why do we need a specific month to educate people about black history? Why can't it just be part of the curriculum, like Roman history, Egyptian history or German history? We don't have an 'Egyptian history month' or a 'Second World War history month', so why should we have one for black history. Creating a month for it will only raise awareness for a short period and not educate individuals about it, like every other historical topic.

Also, why do we always have to focus on the most negative events that happened to blacks? Slavery, the civil rights stuff that happened in America, the fact that black people had to deal with racism for decades? Why can't we focus on the sections of black history that are actually interesting and educational, and do not only focus on the shit blacks have been through? If you were to teach black history, why wouldn't you include history that the majority of black people would like to know? Perhaps various African cultures, African religions and traditions, attitudes towards black people in the UK in the 50's and 60's seem like reasonable topics to teach individuals, rather than the entire negative stuff that happened in America!

I probably haven't expressed myself so well in this post, but what I'm trying to say that Black History Month should be banned and that black history should be included in the school curriculum. One month will not educate people about it, but entering it in history books will. Even when they're included in the history books, they should consist of black history that is actually reflective of all black people, rather than a majority of slave relatives that protested across the Atlantic. 

Here's a video of Morgan Freeman expressing his thoughts about BHM, better than I did in this entire post.

Imagine Miracle Day actually happens.

During breakfast, my mother and I were talking about certain things that have happened to our lives recently. She started working again at her primary school, as the summer holidays have finally come to an end and I was preparing myself for my final year in college (a sixth form college that is. I guess it's like the final year at an American high school). We suddenly started talking about Torchwood, a sci-fi program that I started watching recently. I've only seen two episodes of Torchwood, but the Miracle Day theme seems to interest me a lot. It started making me think about how important death and diseases are, and how good they actually are.

Of course, death and illnesses are not that great - morally. I'm sure no one enjoys the sight of a fellow human being suffering from a disease or dying because of one. Adverts of children in third-world begging for food or suffering from a preventable illness, continuously break out hearts.
However, science today has become like a bacteria that it continuously multiplying and coming up with new ideas and inventions. I have read in a few newspapers that human beings could possible become immortal with the help of medicines and cures for diseases. Nowadays, people are reaching ages which would seem unimaginable to our forefathers, all thanks to science. It's actually brilliant how we and the world have developed thanks to science.

But is this really a good thing? Surely, you can argue that many lives have been saved thanks to science. Like it has been shown on Torchwood, death is rather important. In fact, it's vital that we should die. Perfect immune systems and immortality might seem like the ideal dream for most of us, yet it would be destructive. Why?

Firstly, the most obvious reason - the World would not have enough resources for all the immortal human beings and we won't be able to shelter everyone. This problem is happening right now, even though we're mortal! We are running out of scarce resources, which are meant to provide for our needs on a daily basis, e.g. fossil fuels. Of course, science is trying to figure out alternatives for fossil fuels, but that's going to take a while and when immortality is a possibility, 'a while' is not a good thing.

Even if people were not immortal, the fact that medicine has the ability to increase the life span of a human being is good (morally), because people are surviving, but it's also bad, because people aren't dying quickly enough. I know, at the moment I seem like an absolute nutter, but hear me out! In 1500, the world only consisted of 450 million people. That's a bit more that the US population today and a lot less than the population of the People's Republic of China! It has been predicted that in 2083, the world will consist of 10 billion human beings!

Now let's go back to the topic of our resources running out. Another problem is that we won't be able to provide money and shelter for all these people in 2083! Not only would this leave many people unemployed and homeless, it could even result to a great increase in crime.Obviously, the homeless people would resort to crime in order to provide for themselves and/or for the family, but governments might even implement laws which allows murder, in order to decrease the rapid growth in population.

What I was basically trying to explain through this post (and obviously failed), is that even though medicine and science might advance today's society and make everything better, it could also lead to destruction in 2083. Or maybe that's all in my head. I don't know. I have a headache.

Tracy