For Black History Month, these books challenge the status quo
As I’m hoping lots of folks know, February is Black History Month. I’ve written in the past, specifically about poetry, that if you need a month for a special celebration, there is likely something going wrong the other 11 months of the year. I’m reminded of my mother’s response when I asked why, if there was a Mother’s Day, there wasn’t a “Kid’s Day,” and she responded, “Every other day is kid’s day.”
So we need a month to remind the citizenry about Black history, even though in a just world we would simply call Black history American history.
This was the message of “The 1619 Project,” first a magazine feature, then a book and now a Hulu miniseries. Each time “The 1619 Project” grabs some portion of the spotlight, it seems to break more people’s brains as they respond in “hit dogs will holler” style that the work is an attempt to “revise history,” as if our understanding of history is or should be forever fixed in place.
The flop sweat of those afraid of a more complete telling of our nation’s history is on display in the pushback against the proposed Advance Placement course in African American Studies, a movement led by Ron DeSantis, Florida governor and almost certainly a future presidential candidate. In response, the College Board seems to have at least partially caved, leading to the purging of readings from contemporary writers and thinkers such as Kimberlé Crenshaw, bell hooks and Ta-Nehisi Coates.
That someone would not benefit from reading and thinking about books like Crenshaw’s edited collection “Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings that Formed the Movement,” hooks’ “Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope,” or Coates’ essays, including “The Case for Reparations” from his “We Were Eight Years in Power” collection, is simply nonsensical. No one is going to be harmed by exposure to these ideas, because exposure to ideas does not require acceptance of those ideas.
Nikki Haley, another likely future presidential candidate, recently tweeted that critical race theory “is un-American.” I’m sure this appeals to some portion of her political base that has been convinced that an academic theory, which is an attempt to explain the persistent inequality in this country, is some kind of boogeyman. But truly, this is telling on herself, an acknowledgment that she is too afraid of an idea to take it head-on.
I believe there’s nothing more American than trying to learn more about our country, warts and all.
Some people are more comfortable clinging to reassuring myths than allowing the free flow of ideas that may challenge the status quo. Another new book, “Myth America: Historians Take on the Biggest Legends and Lies About Our Past,” edited by Kevin Kruse and Julian Zelizer is an attempt to puncture some of that comforting history around issues like feminism, immigration, the New Deal, and yes, Black history.
Like “The 1619 Project,” the book is designed to challenge the preexisting status quo in an effort to help people be more thoughtful about the country we live in and the society we share. Many will find parts of the book upsetting or disagreeable, preferring myth to a more complicated narrative, which is fine, but my hope is that lots of people are interested in learning as much as possible so as to replace those comforting myths with a more grounded truth.
So yes, let’s acknowledge and celebrate Black History Month, while recognizing that such a thing is necessary because for too long, too much of American history has been white history.