What Is Going On With Society At The Moment?

[ToraToraTora]

I work in a major world bank, in my inbox today I have recieved an email, this is the openning paragraph: "Black History Month is celebrated every October in the UK and seeks to promote and celebrate the contributions of Black, African and Caribbean communities locally and across the globe, as well as to heighten the confidence and awareness of black people in their rich cultural heritages." - now substitute a few words and the sender would probably be arrested. AB I welcome your observations.....

[kvalidir]

There are often Jewish celebrations, Irish celebrations, Scots etc etc etc, so why not black? If you are saying we should have 'white' celebrations go on then, nothing racist in it per se as long as it's not designed to be.

[naomi24]

Try it, TTT. ;o)

[ToraToraTora]

you miss the point, substitue the the word "black for "white" and "African" for "British" and "caribbean" for "European" and then tell me how quick you'd be on the fornt pages!

[andy-hughes]

I'm not sure which words you would substitute?

Perhaps you can explain, without getting your thread pulled (oo-er missus!)

[Khandro]

TTT; Are you glad you were not born black? If the answer is 'yes,' then I guess that's what it's all about.

[andy-hughes]

Sorry - we cross-posted.

I can't see why that would be an arrestable offence?

[Mamyalynne]

As long as the celebrations by the Black, African and Caribbean communities do not bar White English from joining in then I am sure you could set up something similar to celebrate the White English rich cultural heritages,as long as it was open to be celebrated by all.

[youngmafbog]

Subsitute those words and Plod will be bashing down your door closely followed by liberal left press.

[ToraToraTora]

well your obstuse approach tells me all I need tio know. we all know what I'm asking here. I told you which words to substitute Andy as you well know. You choose to ignore the obvious because it probably goes against your agenda. If I must: " "White History Month is celebrated every October in the UK and seeks to promote and celebrate the contributions of White, British and European communities locally and across the globe, as well as to heighten the confidence and awareness of white people in their rich cultural heritages." - geddit?

[ToraToraTora]

read the above quickly before it gets removed.

[Henrietta]

I don't see the problem. Blacks at one point were a small minority here in the U.K and the U.S.A feeling secluded and lonely especially after histories enslavement of their ancestors so why shouldn't we tell them their history?

How it really was and not how it was painted over and sugar coated. Besides I like to think that had it been the other way around and we were the minority in a far away land after enslavement that there would be some kind souls around who would want to tell us how our history really was.

The only people who may have a problem with that surely are those who are ashamed and trying to sweep history under the rug?

This has gotten waaay to deep for a Tuesday afternoon especially after a lovely invite from an old friend. See ya later.

[baza]

I thought October was a bleak month with the nights getting longer and nothing to look forward to unless you include halloween, now just to make me more miserable they want to ..................


get me to


give up smoking.

[ToraToraTora]

wrong thread baza?

[jim360]

The thing is, though, that for a very long time in history Black communities have had a raw deal. If this were somehow the fault of other black communities, which is partly true, that's beside the point. Almost from the first day that Europeans arrived in the Americas they set up the systems to exploit, persecute, subjugate, etc, the locals and just generally treated them like some lower form of life. Later on in the process we ran out of local people to enslave and "had" to use some from Africa. With the help of willing tribal leaders, perhaps...

But this has in the long run meant something close to 350 years of essentially continuous slavery of non-white communities in Africa and the Americas, and a further 150 years or so after that of their descendants still being treated like second-class citizens. All because of their skin colour and because gun beats spear.

And this kind of discrimination is ongoing today. If such communities want to have a month each year to remember this, emphasise the past, and try to overcome the remaining barriers, what's the problem? One month of hearing about this a year? And you don't even have to listen, if you don't want to, beyond an occasional email that you can always delete, or leaflets that you could easily put in a bin if you aren't interested in reading them. For others, they have to put up with this their whole lives. Moaning about an email pales into nothingness by comparison.

[naomi24]

//If such communities want to have a month each year to remember this, emphasise the past, and try to overcome the remaining barriers, what's the problem?//

The problem is this doesn’t help overcome remaining barriers. It exacerbates prejudice.

[woofgang]

One of the things I liked about living in New Jersey (20 plus years ago) was the way that everybody seemed to celebrate everything. I know that was very commercially driven but the shops would be full of stuff for Passover, Kwanzaa, Hallowe'en and so on without any kind of demarcation or difference.

Black history month isn't new. I don't think that anyone would disagree that in the west, history was written by the white folks and this movement started to redress the balance a bit.
It started in 1926!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_History_Month