February has always been my favorite month of the year. The second month is home to such events as Mardi Gras and the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln, Michael Jordan and most importantly – on the same day as Sir Altitude – myself. February is also the dawning of the age of Aquarius, the home of Valentine’s Day and the whole of Black History Month. While I’m glad that Black History Month occurs the same month as my birthday, I’m sort of happy it’s over. Black History Month is only 32 years old. It began in 1976 – intentionally coinciding with America’s bicentennial – as an extension of “Negro Achievement Week,” originally honoring Frederick Douglass around his birthday. The brainchild of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity, Negro Achievement Week was deemed insufficient by the Black Power Movement and the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History. This led the way to elongating the seven-day celebration into a month-long conversation with the country to shed light on achievements in black culture as well as improving race relations. I used to think there wasn’t any need for Black History Month or affirmative action. I knew about both topics and have been well educated on the subject. Quite wrongly, I believed anyone could work for any job they wanted. I thought it was wrong for someone to get a job above someone else purely for racial diversity to satisfy a quota. I then read an opinion column about affirmative action that forced me to change my viewpoint. It seems more education on black history and affirmative action is direly needed. Affirmative action has been falsely perceived as a temporary measure to ensure diversity and opportunity for underprivileged people. In reality, affirmative action is a motion set in place to offset some of the atrocities our government and people have committed throughout the years. Many calamities for which slavery is responsible – such as the killing of smart, learned slaves or the breeding of stronger, more resilient slaves in the hopes of producing “super-slaves – have made their evidence known today. As Chris Rock accurately and eloquently put it, “We can still see this today. Black people are 10 percent of the population, and we’re 90 percent of the Final Four.” This is not a joking matter. The moratorium for who can benefit from whatever position will not leave the public domain slowly, and it shouldn’t at all. What I’ve realized can be put in very simple terms: the second we start undermining policies meant to counterbalance past bigotry or hatred we will be moving backward in our hopes of improving and eventually leveling race relations. Still, I am put off somewhat by Black History Month. I used to think that because I got it, because I understood, I didn’t need to hear about it anymore. I thought, wrongly, that all Americans deserved equal rights regardless of the tragedies of our past. But it’s precisely wrong, given the context of affirmative action. If I’m applying for a job, and a white person applies for the same job, and he’s more qualified than me, he deserves the job. We should assume that Americans are given the freedom to work hard to attain their goals. If the qualifications are equal, however, making race the only difference, it should be my job for the taking, as I have worked harder against incredible historical adversity, instead of him, born to privilege merely by virtue of being white. The long and short of it is black people just aren’t equal to white people yet. Because of our tragic history, the road to equality is not yet complete, but it is being paved because of great people – from Barack Obama to Bill Clinton. America should have no room for intolerance. I see a world in the future where there is no longer a need for affirmative action or Black History Month. As you read this, three days into Women’s History Month – no, I’m not making that up – think about the advantages you have, but don’t think about those same advantages because of race. To a certain extent, I’m in college because of my race. I’ve gotten certain privileges not afforded to white people. But I’m still here because I’m working for it, and I can’t wait for the day when it isn’t necessary to have a Black History Month. After all, black history doesn’t end on March 1st.
—-Contact Eric Freeman Jr. at [email protected]