uor stores, organize marches and make some attempt at imitating human speech. They are called Negroes. Regrettably, if there is such a thing a "natural selection," most of them have selected to be naturally lazy. They are living examples of the Lord's unfinished business because these more primitive hominids are still evolving."
Granted, those who think there is no need to teach Black History might argue there are infinite illustrations that counter a single comic strip or an eccentric scientist. The little Black lad of yore lives no more in modern American history.
African-Americans have arrived. Barack Obama is our President, elected by the people, Black and white. Michelle Obama, America's First Lady, an African-American scholar in her own right, by her very presence teaches Black History literally and figuratively.
Oprah Winfrey is among the wealthiest women in the world. The entertainer's entrepreneurial story is a "phenomenon, a modern-day Horatio Alger, up from roots in poorest America." Tiger Woods is highly successful. Perhaps, these accomplished individuals demonstrate "race no longer defines us,"or as Eric Holder so aptly stated, what "now passes as meaningful interaction . . . in reality accomplishes very little." Surely, we are separate and unequal when we pretend that our past does not still define us, or that there is no reason to discuss the differences that continue to divide us.
Rather than rant or rage, Black History month is no longer relevant, as a nation we might realize as our Attorney General offered, "This nation has still not come to grips with its racial past." (What) will be, at first, a process that is both awkward and painful," will reap rewards.
What we may learn when we honor Black History, will be "potentially great," As Eric Holder espoused on the same day the controversial Delonas cartoon appeared. The subject of segregation need not divide us. When we acknowledge a problem, we can begin to solve it.
Those who think there is no need to actively honor African-American history might wish to ponder the prominence of African-Americans who are unfamiliar to most. Might those whose names we do not know from the past, and in the present, be representative of the young Black "boy" whose parents protected him, punished him, and did not honor him, or acknowledge his accomplishments?
Please ponder the draftsman, engineer, and inventor, Lewis Howard Latimer who worked as the original draftsman for Thomas Edison. Scientist Latimer invented an electric lamp with an inexpensive carbon filament and a threaded wooden socket for light bulbs. He also helped advance our current conversation, when he drafted the patent drawings for Alexander Graham Bell's telephone. Yet, American's, for the most part do not memorialize the man who allowed us to chat more freely. Black Americans' History, a month of homage? Let us talk.
Might many have thought purplish-brown Americans arrived in 1941? When the United States went to war, Doctor Charles Richard Drew was named Director of the Blood Bank for the National Research Council. His expertise, allowed America to collect blood for the American Armed Forces. The groundwork for the American Red Cross, blood collection, and procedures that allow for the storage of plasma are attributed to this African-American. Yet, few know his name.
White patriarchs were, and are, perhaps more prominent in the minds of many who have forgotten the tale of the young lad and his adopted parents. In America, absentmindedness for a prideful past affects our present.
The African-American man or woman who sits beside his Anglo brethren is not segregated by homage to history. A lack of awareness, acceptance, and praise for a people divides America.
Perhaps the question Americans might ask is not whether to set aside days to discuss the trials and tribulations of Black people. The query, instead, might be, is colormuteness characteristic in a country segregated, not by Black History Month, but by the actions of man. Could it be that citizens wish to claim American culture is a colorblind. In a na