Irrelevant blackness To make diversity meaningful, we must redefine how we celebrate and teach about it BY SHAY STEWART-BOULEY

You may have heard about a recent Ken Burns documentary that aired on PBS called Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson. You may have even watched it. And it was a great documentary that provided an interesting window into race relations and overcoming racial barriers in the early 20th century.

Now that we’ve started African-American history celebrations and remembrances again this year with Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday in mid-January and now Black History Month in February, I suspect that Unforgivable Blackness will probably be the best thing I experience. Frankly, I don’t hold out much hope that Black History Month will bring anything else that moves me. And if I may play off the title of Burns’ documentary, I think that there is danger that we have created "Irrelevant Blackness" in our recognitions of black history.

In short, I don’t think Black History Month works anymore. I’m not sure how well it worked in the beginning, either, but I know it’s broken now. My fellow African Americans can cringe at those words all they want, but to ignore that fact is to make our history irrelevant to whites and other non-blacks — and maybe even to ourselves.

What should be an opportunity to learn about black folks and the rich and varied history of black people in this country has become, instead, a losing battle. Last year around this time, I wrote about the fact that many whites wonder why Black History Month should even exist. Well, they still wonder.

I don’t see that Black History Month has done anything to blunt the perception on the part of many whites that all African-American males want to play basketball. It doesn’t seem that white women clutch their purses any less when a young black man is walking nearby. And it doesn’t seem — among adults anyway —that blacks are embraced into white people’s lives any more than last year, or last decade for that matter.

Even in a state with as few blacks as Maine, we have our special events. We embrace diversity for a hot second. We all feel good about seeing blacks and whites in the same vicinity in relatively large numbers. But then, we go back to our cozy, separate lives until we’re ready to roll out the black speakers and performers again from mid-January to February the next year.

When you see black folks out of contexts like the workplace or stores where you shop, do you really embrace them? It’s just a question, not an accusation. Do you really have black friends? I mean, really. Do you invite black people over to your home? Do you spontaneously make plans to hang out with them? Are there any black people in your inner circle with whom you really share dreams and hopes and fears?

If you do and you’re white, you’re in the minority. And I applaud you. If you don’t do those things, any black people you know aren’t your friends. They’re just people you "kind of know."

And that’s what bothers me about Black History Month. We talk and we act like we’re making a difference. But how often does Black History Month bring any whites and blacks together as friends? I’ve never seen it happen personally. Never experienced such a thing. Never heard another black friend mention this phenomenon.

Black History Month is such a narrow thing, it seems. I see a lot about Dr. King, and he seems to be perceived as the greatest black leader, while others are kept to the sidelines of history. After all, Malcolm X was a pretty powerful man and an important leader, but of course he was also a lot scarier. His motto was "By any means necessary." Guess that doesn’t endear him as much to the general public as Dr. King.

Reading a newspaper after the Dr. King celebrations last month, I saw a photo of a march by the local NAACP in Portland. What struck me most of all was how few people were black. I know you probably think I should be happy about that. It proves we’re inclusive. No, considering that just about every race in Maine was in the march shows that Black History Month and Dr. King’s birthday aren’t teaching anyone about the black experience, at least not here. Maybe nowhere.

Maybe that’s what the NAACP needs to be in Maine — a multicultural organization that addresses issues relating to all folks who are marginalized in any way. If so, that’s fine.

The Civil Rights Era has been over for a while and we have a whole generation of kids coming up for whom the idea of people of different races coming together is less and less of a strange concept. While that’s good, I don’t think we can thank Black History Month. I think we can thank the fact that they’ve grown up together in an era with relatively little overt race conflict and growing numbers of non-white people.

But that brings me back to the people now who still don’t feel like mixing with people of other races unless they have to. It brings me back to the fact that Black History Month has become a packaged thing, like Christmas and Thanksgiving. Once the month is gone, so are the feelings it engendered — just the way holiday decorations get tucked away.

Perhaps we are at a point where, instead of focusing on one or two "special" groups, we need to just make sure our kids learn everyone’s history for once. If we really did that, instead of just rolling out a special group for a month, I’d be happy to see Black History Month, Hispanic Heritage Month, and all the rest become a memory. Because, then, maybe no one in the next generation would see each other as strangers because of skin color.

Shay Stewart-Bouley can be reached at shaybouley@msn.com