Black History Month - Sheffield schools

[Chris_Sleeps]

A 'Black History Month' does no good but fuel "anti-white" ideas. I'm all for learning all aspects of history, but to seperate black history and teach it as something external to the curriculum strikes me as odd. It feels like some type of 'white guilt', and it only serves to feed racism. The very thing they're trying to avoid is the very thing they create in these exercises; the liberal dilemma.

 

It would be lovely to teach all history at school; Black history, the history of the Catholic Church, and the Arab Empires, and Ancient Greece. I don't like taking this specific course and putting a label on it.

[cytine]

A 'Black History Month' does no good but fuel "anti-white" ideas. I'm all for learning all aspects of history, but to seperate black history and teach it as something external to the curriculum strikes me as odd. It feels like some type of 'white guilt', and it only serves to feed racism. The very thing they're trying to avoid is the very thing they create in these exercises; the liberal dilemma.

 

It would be lovely to teach all history at school; Black history, the history of the Catholic Church, and the Arab Empires, and Ancient Greece. I don't like taking this specific course and putting a label on it.

 

I fully agree with you. Unfortuneately the Liberal trendies will not see another point of view. Or that their biased views are fuelling racism

Edited May 24, 2011 by cytine
adding further comment

[Douglas J]

http://www.black-history-month.co.uk/

 

I know that 5 years ago, sheffield kids were being taught at Meadowhead about white, english oppressors and black slaves... Made for awkward discussions between black and white kids, as it was put forward in a way that suggested that the white kids were the offspring of the black kids oppressors??? Had to point out to one pupil there that the white kids ancestors were more likely to have been miners, and so not directly involved in anything of the sort, but wage slaves for the huge mining magnets of the day... Can be tricky to get right, and some teachers/schools seem poorly kitted out to do this?

 

The whole point of Black History month (i don't know how many years it's been going) is to show there is another way of telling our history. From the point of view of black kids at school in the past, history was often a way of reinforcing a very narrow "official history" that offered nothing to them. it reinforced the idea of the white man ruling a quarter of the globe but just ignored a huge amount of human civilisation as if it either hadn't happened or didn't matter.

 

The classic case is telling the story of Florence Nightingale but not MAry Seacole.

 

Given that the history of Britain is a history of immigration, that seemed a little unfair so the idea of recognising aspects of history that was relevant for black people (and Asian and Arabic and Chilean ....) helps all children in schools have a little more understanding of where we are today.

 

Incidentally, Sheffield forefathers may not have been involved in the slave trade but they were concerned. Sheffield had a lot of demonstrations and civil disobedience in the 1800s at the workers' protest against the disgrace of the slave trade.

[Gram?]

The whole point of Black History month (i don't know how many years it's been going) is to show there is another way of telling our history. From the point of view of black kids at school in the past, history was often a way of reinforcing a very narrow "official history" that offered nothing to them. it reinforced the idea of the white man ruling a quarter of the globe but just ignored a huge amount of human civilisation as if it either hadn't happened or didn't matter.

 

The classic case is telling the story of Florence Nightingale but not MAry Seacole.

 

Given that the history of Britain is a history of immigration, that seemed a little unfair so the idea of recognising aspects of history that was relevant for black people (and Asian and Arabic and Chilean ....) helps all children in schools have a little more understanding of where we are today.

 

Incidentally, Sheffield forefathers may not have been involved in the slave trade but they were concerned. Sheffield had a lot of demonstrations and civil disobedience in the 1800s at the workers' protest against the disgrace of the slave trade.

 

Nah, you're wrong.

[irenewilde]

Isn't it where they try and put guilt on non blacks?

 

I think so, yes. All gets a bit tedious after a while and doesn't seem to encourage integration in any way.

[irenewilde]

So you don't think that Britain's history involved any black people then?

 

It involved them yes, but I don't think we need a whole month devoted to only them.

[Douglas J]

The whole point of Black History month (i don't know how many years it's been going) is to show there is another way of telling our history. From the point of view of black kids at school in the past, history was often a way of reinforcing a very narrow "official history" that offered nothing to them. it reinforced the idea of the white man ruling a quarter of the globe but just ignored a huge amount of human civilisation as if it either hadn't happened or didn't matter.

 

The classic case is telling the story of Florence Nightingale but not MAry Seacole.

 

Given that the history of Britain is a history of immigration, that seemed a little unfair so the idea of recognising aspects of history that was relevant for black people (and Asian and Arabic and Chilean ....) helps all children in schools have a little more understanding of where we are today.

 

Incidentally, Sheffield forefathers may not have been involved in the slave trade but they were concerned. Sheffield had a lot of demonstrations and civil disobedience in the 1800s at the workers' protest against the disgrace of the slave trade.

 

Nah, you're wrong.

 

I like the way you set out your careful analysis.

[chem1st]

When is white history month then?

 

Some 60 years from now, when your future children's children are homeless and they look at the houses and say, "My Great great great grandfather built that house."

[Arguendo]

The whole point of Black History month (i don't know how many years it's been going) is to show there is another way of telling our history. From the point of view of black kids at school in the past, history was often a way of reinforcing a very narrow "official history" that offered nothing to them. it reinforced the idea of the white man ruling a quarter of the globe but just ignored a huge amount of human civilisation as if it either hadn't happened or didn't matter.

 

The classic case is telling the story of Florence Nightingale but not MAry Seacole.

 

Given that the history of Britain is a history of immigration, that seemed a little unfair so the idea of recognising aspects of history that was relevant for black people (and Asian and Arabic and Chilean ....) helps all children in schools have a little more understanding of where we are today.

 

Incidentally, Sheffield forefathers may not have been involved in the slave trade but they were concerned. Sheffield had a lot of demonstrations and civil disobedience in the 1800s at the workers' protest against the disgrace of the slave trade.

 

My history education at school didn't require one specific culture or ethnic group to be singled out; it gave a broad & in-depth examination of all aspects of our history, encompassing all our success's & failures. It highlighted times when we could be proud & when as a country we should recognise that what we did in hindsight was wrong. Although continuing to appologise for these past deeds enacted by our ancestors does not help our society to move on.

 

I don't feel modern day descendents of slaves can relate or even appreciate one slight iota the pain their ancestors went through, in comparison neither can the descendents of our ancestral wrong doers also understand their reasons for the actions they took, so I’m definitely not going to be made to feel that I have to appologise to make anyone feel better. We live in a modern & multicultural society, all of whom have an historical grievance of one kind or another, so yes teach history in schools but don't single out one particular race as being more oppressed than the other, as they, say get over it.

[Douglas J]

My history education at school didn't require one specific culture or ethnic group to be singled out; it gave a broad & in-depth examination of all aspects of our history, encompassing all our success's & failures. It highlighted times when we could be proud & when as a country we should recognise that what we did in hindsight was wrong. Although continuing to appologise for these past deeds enacted by our ancestors does not help our society to move on.

 

I don't feel modern day descendents of slaves can relate or even appreciate one slight iota the pain their ancestors went through, in comparison neither can the descendents of our ancestral wrong doers also understand their reasons for the actions they took, so I’m definitely not going to be made to feel that I have to appologise to make anyone feel better. We live in a modern & multicultural society, all of whom have an historical grievance of one kind or another, so yes teach history in schools but don't single out one particular race as being more oppressed than the other, as they, say get over it.

 

If you did indeed get a "broad and in-depth examination of all aspects of our history", that's great. It's not the norm, as some people here have pointed out - there's an awful lot of history.

 

it's not about blame, though. history is about learning and understanding, not about taking sides.