In my high school, and I’m sure many others, Black History Month is not celebrated. There is nothing about it on the walls of the hallway and the teachers make no effort to incorporate it into their lessons. If it weren’t for social media, I would most likely not even think about Black History Month. Now many people don’t think this is a big deal. Black history is just a part of American history, right?
Wrong.
Black history could be a part of American history if it was taught in as much detail. However, this is just not the case. High schools have managed to use slavery and the Civil Rights Movement to sum up the history of African Americans. The way children are taught the history of black people affects the way they come to see blacks in their adult age. This is why Black History Month is so important. The story of how blacks went from slavery to having a black man as the President of the United States deserves to be told.
However, even though black people have made tremendous progress over the years, we still struggle with equality in today’s society. So, in honor of Black History Month, I have decided to write about a few of the struggles I have experienced or noticed growing up as a black woman. I am not trying to speak out on behalf of the entire black community but I would just like to share some of the opinions I have formed over the years. My roommate and I often have discussions about the things we have experienced as minorities and we always say how nice it is to have someone who understands what it is like, but the chance to explain it to someone who doesn’t understand would be even better. The only way to really make things better is to make the people who don’t go through our struggles understand what it is like. So, now that I have the opportunity to share my thoughts, I'm going to take full advantage of it.
In the past year, many eventful things have happen to spark an uproar within the black community. The #blacklivesmatter movement has continued to grow through the use of many different social networks and has received support from even outside the country. This movement has been very influential for me personally. Growing up, I was usually the only black girl in my group of friends. Being surrounded by a majority of whites, I noticed at a young age how different the lives of non-minorities are. Because of this, I began to resent my race. I took it as a compliment when people would call me "white girl" and I started to believe some of the racial stereotypes that I would see or hear. However, this all changed after the trial of Tamir Rice and the Ferguson Riots. With such a surge of black empowerment, I was able to join the movement and start to speak out about the social injustices that blacks face. That's why this February is so important for blacks. We're at the height of our movement and we need to take full advantage of that and show people that it's time for change.
