THE GREENSBORO TIMES Publisher’s View Why Black History Month is Needed in America Carter G. Woodson, educa-


tor and historian, founded Negro His- tory Week the second week in February, 1931, in honor of Fredrick Douglass’s birthday. This has grown now to be- come a month-long celebration. Wood- son believed that the American “Negro” had been mis-educated about their his- tory in America and his history before blacks were kid-knapped and brought to the shores of North America.


He Publisher, Earl Jones


believed that African Americans were falsely taught that they had no history to be respected and that their past reflected an inferior status within the human fam- ily. Therefore, this mis-education would render African Americans unable to end


their oppressed condition. The purpose of America’s mis-education of Af- rican Americans was to attempt to maintain the cultural, political and eco- nomic power of white supremacy. Woodson notes in part the following:


When you control a man’s thinking, you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here are go yonder;’ he will find his “proper place” and will stay in it. You do not have to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit.


The point here is that physical slavery required chains, slave


makers, owners and overseers. Slavery was always in jeopardy as long as slaves actually saw its physical evidence. Mental slavery requires the con- trol of the mind by teaching the enslaved person to feel inferior. This form of slavery does not require chains, slave makers or overseers. Simply, all that is needed are words and images from teachers, books, newspapers and television that can make a person feel inferior. Eventually, a person will need less of these tools because the victims will then convince new generations of the same for as long as they are kept from knowing their true history.


The European-American story has been their story rather than the truth.


White history makes Greece the origin of civilization, but Herodotus is not the father of history because history was being recorded inside the tombs, temples, pyramids and on papyrus (original paper) 3,000 years before his birth. Hippocrates is not the father of medicine because Imhotep is the father of medicine, for he lived 2,000 years before Hip- pocrates was born. Doctors today still take the Hippocratic Oath, in which Hippocrates refers to Imhotep. Because of the mis-education of African Americans, unfortunately, even today, many blacks believe that “white ice is colder.” The celebration of Black History Month attempts to correct this


brain washing among black and white Americans. Black History Month gives us an opportunity to review the struggles and triumphs of African Americans in America and their impact on the world before their arrival to America.


Our triumphs have been America’s triumphs. The success of the


Civil Rights Movement benefited all Americans by creating laws to protect the physically challenged, women, senior citizens, and religious groups. The strength, visions, and survival skills of African Americans against all odds have been and are inspiring to oppressed people throughout the world. Dignity, humility and a spiritual strength of resolve have character- ized the African-American struggle for justice and equality.


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the position his leg would have been in had he dropped on the ball. When that led to a question about how that play and the loss impacted his team- mates felt about him, they literally SANG his praises. (Watch the video above if you don’t believe me.)


ternity of white males who have never played NFL football, white males who have and a smaller crew of Black men who are some of the former and some of the latter) Newton is difficult to fit into an already constructed Black male athlete box. He is not like Russell Wilson, a likeable guy to be sure, but one that doesn’t court controversy and writes pandering tributes to Peyton Manning. Other Black quarterbacks from Williams to Randall Cunningham to Donovan McNabb to Michael Vick to Warren Moon, a Newton advisor, either didn’t have the personality or the luxury to be as exuberant or as unafraid as Newton is.


The fact that he played a successful NFL season with unrestrained joy is only controversial to those who are used to seeing Black male ath- letes in public who hide that exuberance behind corporate restraint, defen- siveness, defiance, eccentricity or anger. Newton must have greatly shaken their paradigm. The implied constraints on Black male emotion restrict them from being able to express a full range of them the public eye. The Jordan crying face meme is an example. As funny as it is, it diminishes the very real and complex emotions Jordan must have felt at his 2009 Hall of Fame induction, which is where it comes from.


where a strong and present father provided a bar for achievement. Archie Manning was himself a quarterback, though he never played on a winning team. His NFL legacy has been assured through his sons, both now with 2 Lombard trophies apiece.


Newton’s father Cecil and his mother Jackie can boast of two sons making the NFL, although Newton’s older brother Cecil, Jr., has not has as successful a career. Their younger brother Caylin, a high school quarter- back, is on his way to being at least an NFL prospect.


Manning’s enjoy for raising sons into men who should be respected for their character and athletic abilities on the national stage. But has that hap- pened?


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faith-based, unapologetic Black man. That is why some people want to reduce him to a nigger and a thug because they fear a Black man who won’t be cowed and won’t kowtow. (I always wonder how avowed racists manage to still watch the NFL, which wouldn’t exist without Black play- ers, who take the brunt of its now documented destruction of Black, and white, bodies.)


that generated the criticism in the first place. For those who already hate him, he just added a few more reasons. Certainly, Cam has his white sup- porters and diehard fans as well. And there are plenty of little white kids who watch this superstar superhero of a man and with awe and reverence – until they grow up to become sports reporters, apparently.


have the father that Cam does, many of whom are used to their favor- ite athletes asking them to buy shoes and jerseys but not speak up about the racism and poverty that impact them, some of which those very ath- letes know firsthand, or that hide their political leanings or activism be- hind smoothly crafted corporate facades to shill more products instead of reaching out to the youth or neighborhoods that sustain their careers, Cam IS a superhero. He’s a revelation. He’s a Black man who physically and figuratively stands tall. And like many superheroes, he will be tried. But he’s unbreakable.


strength of street knowledge.” Well, now America, you have witnessed the strength of a Black man who stands up for himself, his right to his emo- tions and his will to win. You’ll just have to deal with it.


As N.W.A. once said about their music: ‘You have witnessed the But for the young Black men watching him, many of whom don’t Cam’s press conference today will likely not follow him like the one Acknowledged or not, those family bonds have created an educated, Newton’s intact, Christian family deserves the same reverence the Newton, like the Mannings and the Williams sisters, is from a family For many mainstream sports journalists, (who are essentially a fra-


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