February is Black History Month.
Why do we need Black History Month? Why don’t we set aside special occasions to observe the history of other ethnicities in our country?
My answer to this question is that Black history tells a uniquely important story in our nation. It is a story that no other race or ethnicity shares. It is a story that must be grasped and understood if we are to understand our country as a whole, where it has been, and where it needs to go.
Unique among a large percentage of Black Americans is a history in which their ancestors did not choose to come to America. They were brought here by force and enslaved. No other ethnicity shares a history in which their ancestors did not come here by choice.
According to the 1790 Census of the United States, of a population of 3,893,635, 17.8%, or a total of 694,280, were slaves.
In a nation founded on the principle of human liberty, almost one-fifth of the population were slaves. How should we understand this?
Some want to tell us that slavery is not just a stain on American history but that it defines America and American history. That America is a nation founded in racism and evil and that the task today is to reinvent and recreate the nation.
This is what “wokeness” and DEI — diversity, equity, and inclusion programming — is about.
Those who have declared that the nation was evil at its birth now want to seize control and put themselves in charge of deciding what it should be about and what it should look like.
This is a great and dangerous distortion, doomed to add on to, not erase, the sin at America’s founding.
The proclamation from the White House noting National Black History Month 2022 says, “Our nation was founded on an idea: that all of us are created equal and deserve to be treated with equal dignity throughout our lives.”
This, I think, is false.
Our nation was not founded on an idea. An idea is a product of thought.
When slave trader John Newton, composer of the haunting hymn “Amazing Grace,” had the horrible confrontation with himself, realizing the grave sin he had committed, he wrote “I was lost, but now I’m found. / Was blind, but now I see.”
Newton did not discover he had a bad idea and decide to replace it with a better idea.
He realized that there is truth in the world, which he gravely violated.
Our nation’s ideals were rooted in divine principles and recognition that all are created equal because all are the product of the same Creator.
It is for this reason that those who signed the Declaration of Independence concluded, saying, “With a firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”
“Sacred” is not about ideas. “Sacred” is about faith and divine truth.
The presence of slavery at our nation’s founding was about Man’s ability and willingness to sin.
Slavery was the symptom, not the cause.
Black History is documentation that even in a great nation, sin was present.
The Creator gave man the ability to choose. This is why freedom is important. Men cannot be denied their ability to choose. But they also cannot escape their responsibility to choose good over evil.
This is the lesson we must learn from Black History.
We will not live right, we will not treat our neighbors right, until we recognize that we all are the results of the same Creator.
America is in crisis today because recognition of that Creator has been widely purged.
And like the plantation owners that usurped truth, so today we have a new generation of usurpers.
This is what we must recognize and fix.
Star Parker is president of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education and host of the weekly television show “Cure America with Star Parker.” To find out more about Star Parker and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
I’d like to take this moment to remind you that the American education system, including the teachers’ unions, the leaders of our great corporations, the national chamber of commerce, the Democrat Party, the Black Lives Matter organization and the other arrogant, anti-American socialist and globalist folk in our country would greatly appreciate it if you would remember to hate and denigrate this country and yourself for being part of it, so that they can eliminate the individual freedoms and the associated power that you have as a child of God. They will sincerely appreciate you giving up your God given birthright and follow their commands as doing so will greatly increase their control over society and their bank accounts.
Roughly 13% of the population, but you can hardly see an advertisement without them being portrayed as just like us. I choose not to live amongst them. They are uncivilized, and prone to violence. I’m not a racist, but I am a race realist. Jefferson and Madison wanted to send them back after they were freed. We should have done that.
February is Black History Month!!!!! Who selected the shortest and coldest of the year????? I am tired of everyone having an issue with their place in life. Everyone has a starting point when born. What you do with yourself forwards is your issue. There are too many examples of folks who have gone the “Poor Poor Pitiful Me” to achieve way beyond what A===HOLES SAY THAT IS NOT WITHIN THEIR ABILITIES TO EXCEED BECAUSE OF THEIR RACE. The United States of America is the most diverse country on earth. Look around. Stop believing the political rhetoric. What ever race,color,or creed look around. THIS COUNTRY IS YOUR OYSTER. SUCCEED OR FAIL ON YOUR OWN MERITS!!
Our creator did not create different races. There is only one race and that is the human race. We are all different shades of brown. Slavery was wrong then and it is wrong today. Yet it still exists today. One group takes over another and either they conform by changing their religion or are killed. And what about the girls and women who are held as sex slaves. Slavery in all it forms is sin someday all will answer to a higher power.
The hard fact is that racism is endemic. Its part of the human condition to perceive people as “us or them”. Our education system teaches children that racism is a western european malady, unique to white people. Nothing could be further from the truth. Northern italians look down on southerners. Czechs look down on slovaks. Japanese treated chinese and koreans like dogs in ww2. I had a conversation with a high schooler recently and explained this. His eyes grew wide. He had been brainwashed into believing racism originated in europe and was brought here and inextricably woven into our country’s founding. Slavery was hideous but white farm boys from indiana etc paid a terrible price for it. The country had about thirty million people in the 1860s. A loss proportional to civil war casualties today would be around seven million dead. It was a holocaust for southern boys who didnt own slaves and northern boys who never met one. The tragedy was amplified by radical republicans who, intent on revenge, tried to force instant social change in the south. The rise of hitler is often blamed on the treaty of versailles and its punitive terms. Heavy handed occupation during reconstruction provoked reaction leading to jim crow which lasted into the 1960s.
This is well presented as an argument. It is a conclusive presentation without discussion of validity. It does not define its objective nor does it defend its conclusion. The assumptions necessary to realize the conclusion are vague and ambiguous and without proof. I cannot realize the exact purpose.
Black history is important and should be recognized and taught in the schools because it is part of the real history of our country. Tell the truth, the good and the bad. Don’t cancel out the parts of history that someone doesn’t like. We are not responsible for what generations long ago did. Let’s learn from the mistakes, move forward , practice forgiveness and respect each other.
my question.
isn’t this racism?
black history month
according to communist democrat thinking
if not
why isn’t there a history month
for All Ethnicities
Hyphenation is killing this country. If you were Born in America, you are a Native American.
American First ethnicity Second
so Listen up Snowflakes
I never owned any slaves
and you never picked any cotton
end of lesson. I do not owe you shi_!
You must remember the majority of Caucasian peasants residing in Europe were Chatell property, owned by their respective landowners, they existed only as laborers without civil rights. The males were provided as soldiers to the ruling class. The English army and navy were depended on o this source of manpower. It must be remembered that the original slavers were African tribesmen who captured and sold their captives into slavery per the Arabian nations. Tribalism exists today in Africa and the far east. Slavery exists today in these same countries.
The oppressed European immigrants migrated to escape their opressive existence, some coming to the USA at an early date. One set of my Grandparents came to the USA in the late 1800’s and after working in difficult circumstances, managed to purchase acreage from an Indian tribe. It was a desolate area, miles of nothing but forest for miles. They worked 12-hour days, 7 days a week. No electricity until 1949, never had running water. Nearest neighbors were 1.5 miles away.by horse. Some winters they were snowed in for 2-3 months.
They never were on the dole/welfare or owed any money. Lost a son in WW2. I assume they paid into the “Income Redistribution Fund” AKA IRF. Lived to 85 years, never hospitalized for any aliment.
In this area where they lived there was bears, deer and my grandfather shot a Wolverine which attacked him.
Perhaps some day we will have a holiday for 0ur white forefathers who escaped slavery, but paid taxes!
If there is a Black history month, where is the Caucasian, Asian, Hispanic, Native Americans (N/S America), etc, months of recognition ???
Sorry but the African American or Negro or Black communities, not sure what’s right anymore, are not the only ones that were abused in the past. The fact that we recognized past problems and have been working to correct them should be recognized. Dr Martin Luther King would likely not be accepted in todays race baiting society. Matter of fact, he probably wouldn’t want to be accepted by groups like the, admitted Marxist, Black Lives Matter. I would hope that affirmative action had nothing to do with my airline pilot or heart doctor. There are many very successful people from the different groups that were not given opportunities in the past. I once read an article that said the role models of todays Black leaders are failures, and even call whats going on today the race industry. I have lived through segregation, desegregation, and now going back to segregation and I’m getting weary to the point that when race is mentioned I tune it out because everything today is racist.
I am so tired of all the racist “months” and other items that we see today. Amazon even has a link to shop at black owned businesses!! Isn’t specifically shopping from someone based upon their race (at the exclusion of other races) about as racist as it can get? Take any of these and change the “group” from Black/Hispanic/etc. to “white” and see how far it would go! Why can we just not be Americans, period? Why does race have to be thrown into everything? What ever happened to the goal of a color blind society?
When we talk about the sins of slavery does that include Spaniards and French who were here long before English let us not forget that today it’s well and thriving but that is a tabu we must not touch
Candice Owen has a terrific video on Prager U documenting the history of slavery. Much better than this word salad you have penned
Enough already
When are blacks going to move on? I am not responsible for what happened years ago. What happened is tragic and must NEVER happen again.
Learn from the past and start enjoying your life now.
Time we taught American history and drop the color designation. Own up to our tainted beginnings and learn from them. Not elevate one race over the other.