EDITORIAL: Embrace black history month
Today is the first day of Black History Month – a time every American citizen should spend reflecting on African-American culture.
We commend the Multicultural Academic Student Services Office at Central Michigan University for providing a space for students to talk about black history.
We hope students will participate in Black History Month and use it as a springboard toward a nurturing culture of acceptance and understanding.
Attend a Black History Month event. You’d probably be surprised at what you learn.
There is a Black History Month event nearly every day this month. Most are free and provide an opportunity to learn about a culture than has been historically unrecognized.
Our university has created a forum for us to embrace diversity and remember that inclusiveness is not part of our country’s overall history.
CMU is a predominantly white campus. According to a fall 2015 enrollment report, there were just 1,385 minority students enrolled out of a total of nearly 20,000 .
In grade school, many of us did not get history lessons focusing specifically on black culture in America – apart from the brief overview of the days of slavery to the civil rights movement.
Some members of our community believe racism is dead. This could not be further from the truth.
That is a prime example of how much further we have to go in our fight for acceptance.
As we attend college, we are subconsciously shaping our worldview. CMU is an institution of learning before anything else. Acceptance of all cultures should be part of that educational process.
It is up to us to take the initiative to take part in cultural events on campus.
Learning should go beyond whatever is presented in the classroom and include all cultures and ideas. While our campus is mostly white, there are different types of people from different backgrounds here.
They should not be discounted or under appreciated.
Knowing and respecting other cultures will be a must in the proverbial “real world.” Respect, even more than sensitivity, is key and can only be achieved with proper context.
Black History Month provides us with an opportunity to put the framework of recognition in place.
CMU is providing an opportunity for us to learn how to accept and appreciate black history. The least we can do is utilize it.
Black History Month also provides a chance for African-American students to explain what black culture means to them. We encourage them to lead the discussion on race relations at CMU and across the country.
They cannot accomplish this alone.
Every student on this campus has an obligation to appreciate and understand your ancestry and more importantly, where black culture is headed.
We ask all CMU students to step out of their comfort zone this month.
We must realize the importance of acceptance. More importantly we need to show support for different cultures not just during Black History Month, but also during each day of the year.
