Like so many others of my generation, I've grown up thinking that you're supposed to be able to find anything on Google. That's why when I googled Black History Month, I expected to find pages and pages of information and referred websites about the month's creation-and perhaps its importance today.
That seemed a logical thing to expect, or so I thought. But instead of finding what I had hoped for, all I found were links to disappointing sites about Black History Month, most of which were promoting the marketing of the month and not at all focusing on the things of importance-like who came up with the idea of the celebration or what has happened over the years that has made it so special.
And this year's celebration is tinged with a kind of irony: Coretta Scott King died the day before Black History Month began. Meanwhile, there was talk surrounding the King children-specifically, how poorly they've managed to keep their father's great name alive. I'm even told that the flame that once lit his funeral pier in Atlanta has gone out.
That is sad-to put it another way.
The chaos at the King Center in Atlanta, along with other things, has led many black scholars and leaders to claim that Black History Month is "broken" and its original focus is no longer the purpose of the month. Instead, commercialism has taken over.
As Professor Mark Anthony Neal, Duke's leading expert on black popular culture, sees it, Black History Month was a way to "agitate" for change-especially on historically white campuses.
"In the post-multicultural era, where many campuses superficially embraced notions of diversity, Black History Month began to lose its sting, especially when it became institutionalized," Dr. Neal wrote in an e-mail. "Many campuses used the money that they threw at black history month programming, as a defense that they did, in fact, embrace diversity."
Over time, the month began to lose its focus in favor of greater commercial appeal. "Now Black History Month seems like little more than a marketing scheme for McDonalds, Sears, Hallmark and other corporations to reach 'alternative' consumers," Dr. Neal writes.
Feeling let down by this year's Black History Month and all the talk about it being broken, I realized that if nothing else, those of my generation need to know that the celebration was not always about the drivel that Google has posted and the marketing campaigns Dr. Neal speaks of. Black History Month was started as Negro History Week in 1926 by a courageous black man by the name of Dr. Carter G. Woodson. He saw the importance of honoring the achievements of black Americans. That's an important fact, and is overlooked by far too many people. Fault can be placed on many camps here-schools, teachers and parents. But not for me. I grew up in a household where, even when I didn't know or wasn't told so, the importance of the contributions of black Americans were always celebrated-as were those of Thomas Edison or Ben Franklin or Thomas Jefferson.
Today, however, it seems to me that the month has lost too much of its luster. We have right here on our campus the nation's most esteemed historian of black history in the person of Dr. John Hope Franklin, but how many people even here know who he is or would recognize him if he walked into their dorm? Probably not many. But all is not lost-at least, not yet.
There are many young people who believe that the efforts of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and civil rights stalwarts like Ella Baker and activists such as the late NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers deserve to be remembered and highlighted, and not by corporate entities like Verizon or Budweiser.
I am challenging myself this year to get involved and celebrate Black History Month every day of this month. On campus, the Black Student Alliance is sponsoring several events, including hosting Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, a leading intellectual and master of race discourse today. Americans need to rethink how our nation has changed since the days of Dr. Carter G. Woodson and retool what February means. It should not reflect the spirit of commercialism; rather, the spirit of honoring and celebrating black leaders and black triumph-Woodson's original intent-should be the order of the month.
Aria Branch is a Trinity freshman. Her column runs every Thursday.
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