Hey White People! Okay All People, Remember Not to Forget!

My pal from way back in high school, Yvette Arnold Littleton posts really good stuff on the old Facebook, year round.

You can’t say that about everybody. You can’t say that about me.

But she does, and this time of year, February, I hope more of you will remember to pay more attention to them!

February is Black History Month, and speaking on behalf of the Caucasian chunk of America, I don’t think we really understand it’s purpose.

Nupe, as a white person, when MLK day comes around or Black History Month comes around, you always catch others who look like you, making little off hand remarks.

Now hold on! I don’t necessarily hear outright racist remarks, but come on, you hear remarks.

You don’t hear remarks when the banks close for President’s Day. You don’t hear remarks when the government closes for Columbus Day. (Well you might hear a little bit on MSNBC), but not from the rank and file.

And while the reason for some of it is outright morose bigotry, I feel like the bulk of it is because of the human condition’s superpower, the ability to forget.

This is something I’ve written about over and over. Our ability to forget.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not making excuses. No. What I hope I’m doing is reminding other white people to remember to resist forgetting!

Black History Month is obviously a great opportunity for schools to teach about 500 years of race struggles in America. But it’s also a great opportunity for you and I, old people, to remind ourselves to remember!

I learn something all the time. I learned something this last weekend.

I was making a couple of podcast shows with my friends James Benau and Sha’ron Wood. You can find it on Spotify under Local is Politics. https://media.rss.com/local-is-politics/feed.xml

James brought up an interesting fact about Abraham Lincoln and it blew my mind.

Even though American History taught during my time in school seemed to stop after the teaching of the Civil War, I’ve always thought the Emancipation Proclamation was the first thing to happen!

No, I take that back. First I thought the confederate fort in South Carolina fired upon the Federal Navy, and then I thought the South had a win at Bull Run. Then I thought immediately Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

Yeah, it didn’t happen that way.

Okay, so this is a great example of forgetting to remember or simply I am dumb. You pick.

April 12, 1861, Fort Sumpter was already occupied by federal troops. Not the other way around. The confederates attacked them. And they surrendered.

I got part of it right.

Bull Run didn’t happen until three months later. Not immediately after.

And finally the Emancipation Proclamation wasn’t made until 15 months after the beginning of the war, and didn’t go into effect until almost two years after the beginning.

And that’s what I learned this weekend. Two years afterward.

Dang, I’m sure Mr. Carter in 7th grade Tennessee history taught me better than that. Actually, I know he did. I simply, or conveniently, forgot.

This is what we have to battle: history for our own convenience.

We need to continue to question things. We need to wonder why the Emancipation Proclamation wasn’t made at the onset of war. We need to consider our hero Lincoln. We need to consider all our precedents and Presidents.

Consider this, how many Presidents before….and after Lincoln owned or had owned slaves?

Interesting, right?

Now add in, direct interpersonal slavery related issues and it’s way more disappointing than you might imagine.

In a way, it almost makes today’s arguments about police reform almost inconsequential. Easy, even.

We have a lot to learn. We have a lot to remember. We have a lot to remember not to forget.

And we still have a lot to do.