BLACK HISTORY MONTH
A revolutionary perspective
Published Jan 29, 2006 8:03 PM
Pat Chin
WW photo: G. Dunkel
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Pat Chin, a Workers World Party leader, passed away from
cancer on May 16, 2005. Jamaican-born, Chin traveled numerous times to Haiti in
solidarity with the people’s struggle for liberation there. As a
contributing editor for Workers World, Chin wrote many times on Haitian and
other Caribbean developments. In tribute to her memory, the WW editorial staff
is reprinting excerpts from remarks made by Chin at a WWP Black History Month
forum held on Feb. 14, 2002.
As we commemorate Black
History Month, historian Carter G. Woodson, born in Buckingham County, Va., in
1875 ushered in this celebration. The son of former slaves, Woodson had spent
his childhood working in the Kentucky coal mines.
In 1915, after
completing college, Woodson took on the task of documenting the accomplishments
of Black people in the U.S. On Feb. 19, 1926, he launched “Negro History
Week.” It was celebrated during the second week of February to correspond
to the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.
Woodson did
much of his work against the backdrop of racist attacks and Klan lynchings.
Before then, the history of African people in the U.S. had been barely studied.
Black people were mentioned only to reinforce the racist, less-than-human myth
of inferiority. This central aspect of racist ideology had been invented, in
fact, to justify the trans- Atlantic slave trade—the 400-year holocaust
against African people that took an estimated 70 million lives.
Moreover,
the selling of Black slaves, coupled with the additional riches wrung from their
forced labor, helped to make the U.S. rich and powerful. The stock market was in
fact invented in England so that the fabulous riches being sucked from the slave
trade could be reinvested.
Capitalism continues to suppress or distort
history—particularly of the people it oppresses and exploits. The profit
system, then as now, must—of necessity for its continued
existence—destroy our sense of self and that entails erasing our
histories.
In 1976 Black History Week was expanded into “Black
History Month” as part of the country’s bicentennial
celebration—a country that, to this day, refuses to pay reparations for
the tremendous damage caused by the slave trade, and that has sought to turn
back the limited remedies of affirmative action under the guise of the absurd
notion of “reverse racism.”
Black History Month has remained
tremendously popular in the Black community. Each February there are thousands
of programs nationwide that commemorate the gains, however limited, that the
struggle has won.
But celebrating the history and struggle of Black
people also exposes a painful reality. How much can we celebrate, for example,
when we’re faced with an “endless war” that first targeted
Afghanistan and now threatens to consume other oppres sed people of color? How
many of our own Black and Latin@ youths will die in these wars as cannon fodder
for the rich, sent to fight people who look more like them?
How much can
we celebrate when there’s a thousand percent increase in racial profiling,
when unemployment is skyrocketing, when thousands kicked off welfare now face
the blank wall of unbridled poverty with no social benefits? When millions
remain without health insurance, decent shelter, education and food? When a
disproportionate share of the effects of poverty fall on our
communities?
Then there’s the attempt by big business to manipulate
Black History Month, ever since it was introduced in conjunction with the
bicentennial celebration. So now you see multinational giants like Coca-Cola,
Mobile Oil and Exxon—who exploit us at home and super-exploit our sisters
and brothers abroad—coming out in support of Black History Month.
Over the years we’ve seen hypocrites like Clinton, Bush and
Giuliani issuing proclamations in support of the month—this, after
they’ve slashed programs that has the effect of putting Black women and
children out on the streets, and after they pave the way for the expansion of
the prison industrial complex which has a disproportionate share of Black people
behind bars and on death row.
If we revolutionaries could adjust things,
we would change the focus of February to Black History Month of struggle. Now it
goes without saying that it’s good to study, reflect on and celebrate
history. This is especially important to us who have faced the systematic,
centuries-long attempt to destroy our history and culture.
But if we
simply study without struggling to change the world, our history will be
obliterated. “Power concedes nothing without a demand,” in the words
of Fred erick Douglass. “Without struggle there can be no change,”
he so rightly said. This is most true at this particular time with imperialist
wars raging abroad and the domestic assault on our civil rights to destroy our
movement for social and economic justice.
If the ruling class truly wants
to honor Black History Month why don’t they pass a bill in support of
reparations; why don’t they free Mumia? In fact, why don’t they give
all Black political prisoners amnesty—it’s not too late.
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