Confederate History Month

I also wish our civil war was covered a lot better in our schools. The whole north/south thing was going on almost from day 1 of this country. I think we should have time periods where we study this and even Nazi Germany (I'd almost argue the Russians were more evil) since someone pulled this out. If the south was so evil in their ways, maybe we should set aside a month to learn all about it so we don't repeat history.

By the way you can also thank Lincoln for our income tax, as well as all the politicians afterwards.

Also I'd wager to say the tar heels were the best soldiers in the war. :p

OUR History contains far more than "Blacks were Freed." I don't think it deserves a month, nor do I think it deserves the amount of attention it draws to itself. Speaking from personal experience alone, it also encourages the whole "Whites are racists" no matter what we do.





I'm not going to explain how I use quotes whilst typing an argument. I will say, however, that the discrimination that those people endured belongs to them, not the self-righteous "Oh Lo'die Lo'die" Blacks running around today.


I agree, but once again, the "White Male History" is also "OUR" History, is it not? That is, unless you're speaking of the idea that we "filter" (There's those quotes again!) what we teach/write in our books.

I'm sure "Your Father/Grandfather" is more of a general term, but for the record, my Grandparents were immigrants from Germany. More importantly, it's not that it isn't important, it's the way people put it on a pedestal and expect me to play along. Much like how all we were ever taught in school was that we blew up Japan and the Nazis were pure evil. I can't remember a single time we studied World War I, or anything else, really.

Also, being "Educated in Black History" is completely different than "You a ***' racist mothafucka!"

More clearly speaking: If I were a "Native American," I guess I should demand everyone know about the suffering of my tribe and pay reparations to me.

While I agree with getting rid of the months altogether, I'm curious on how History can be taught "accurately and equally" at all. After all "History is written by the Victors."

The more you know ^^

black history month is a waste, this would be, too

Actually...not to beat the drama llama more here but...the first time I refused to fill that voluntary identification form out was the first time I was hired by a company in almost a year after being laid off...white male by the way.

Nice read so far for the most part, lots of informed voices. To me it feels like those who feel the need for a Black History Month or any other month with a specific theme to educate people means they have a core problem with America Education as this is all really "American History" in a sense.

I'm not saying there isn't a reason to have a problem with our education system, especially given the most recent news with the Texas Board of Education, but I still disagree with the concept of these types of months and think it's kind of insulting to everyone involved considering how many other cultures and peoples make up America. Either include everyone or don't do it at all, or at worst, incite more racism by painting all black people as eternally needing of apology for slavery because Black History Month has always seemed to have this "our bad, have a month and we're squared" theme.

I live just south of Nashville, TN, in a town named Franklin. Franklin was the scene of one of the last major battles of the Civil War, a battle in which thousands of soldiers died here in one afternoon.

The scars are still plainly visible.

There is a hill whose sides were flattened so that it could be used as an observation point by Union soldiers after they occupied the mid-state area. The hill can be seen from anywhere in town.

There are cemeteries all over the place where the dead, from both sides, were buried.

Some buildings, such as The Carter House, still stand, riddled with musket holes. There is an old plantation which was used as a hospital after the battle and became a cemetery. Blood stains on the porch of the mansion are still visible.

I say all of that to get to this point: the war happened along time ago but it changed our nation forever, and the places where the war was fought were changed as well.

I have absolutely no problem with a state like Virginia, which was the major setting for much of the war, seeking to draw attention to a major part of its history. I absolutely believe, however, that the history must be presented from both sides. It is wrong to paint all southerners as slavery-obsessed tyrants. It is also wrong to deny the inescapable role which the slavery debate played in the fracture of the union.

More than anything, however, I'd like to see us calmly pay homage to those who fell on both sides and make it our purpose to ensure that no rift so terrible is ever allowed to fester again.

this. the only segregation of history there should ever be is US history (or wherever you go to school), and world history. period

its 2010 >.>

I live in Georgia and I don't really care about all this Civil war stuff or slavery or w/e crap.. that's all in the past. All I know is some black lady and her protest group made us change our cool flag- they are the ones that are racist- not us.

I agree with Blurr, it is 2010 now people. Move on. Hi Jurai. It is nice to see folks from Ifrit on here.

Hey I'm all for it... Definitely have it in April, since it's the month of fools and while we're at it, let's commemorate April 9th which is when Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox court house.

Let these right wing conservatives have their cake, but I'll damned if they can eat it too. As long we have a healthy dose of accurate history thrown in so that the past doesn't get distorted who cares about CHM.

Wow, Im kinda shocked.

That's funny, because as a fellow white american I don't have any of these feelings. In fact, honestly I cared about black history month for the first few years, after that it doesn't really mean much to me.
American schools didn't teach about black history. America did all it could to keep people who weren't white down as much as possible. Opportunities still to this day do not exist for darker skinned people that are available to white americans. Knowing about your cultural heritage helps empower you to stand up and live to your potential.

It is for these reasons and more that we celebrate black history month. We should also be celebrating the Native Americans.

So all the racists rednecks are going to be celebrating. What are they celebrating? War? Seceeding from America? And why is this holiday put into place? Because the Sons of Confederate Veterans group that gave the governor a lot of money to campaign with told him to.

The whole thing is silly, but really. America is full of ignorance and pomposity. What do you expect?

i'm from the south and i have to say, in all my 32 years, as southerners we dont want to be the group only remembered for something that happened before most of ours time. as in all areas and in all cultures, new generations rise. we should always remember our past. its not all bad. i agree slavery was an abomination, and i dont believe in it in the least, but i myself had nothing to do with it. and i shouldnt be called a racist for loving, and being proud of where i come from. pick an invention, someone, somewhere has something f'd up to say about the person or area it came from. we cant move forward, if we cant see past the past.

It is 2010 and racism is not in the past. It is still prevalent today.

Check this perspective.

all history should be studied. dont be a one minded, only seeing one side of a multi-sided story voice. history comes from many sides, with many sacrifices on both. right or wrong, all suffered somehow or the other.

As far as Arminius' post is concerned, I totally agree with that sentiment and that reasoning for something like the proposed month, but it seems to me that only in a perfect world would that be the case with a Confederate History Month. For both what it would be seen as and celebrated as by the masses, I can imagine something very important about American History being corrupted into all the stereotypes people are echoing now, simply based on what seems like our tendency as a society to just skim the surface of these sorts of topics and go with their first reaction.

Sure there are people who would view this month as something not meant to be negative or celebratory of slavery, but I would argue that they are in the minority of both the side celebrating & condemning it. I don't see the general populace being that informed and understanding for this to ever go well, despite the intentions. Admittedly I held the view that this was incredibly offensive before ever reading this thread, and while I still think it's a bad idea, I think so for different reasons now.

Wheres my white people are awesome month? Heck I'll settle for 1 week

Most of my views are based on my personal experiences. Many of the Blacks I've met will pull the racism card at the slightest chance, and many times, without provocation.

As for the idea of a "Racist Redneck Holiday," I'm seeing the Confederate Month as something more attuned to things like Veteran's Day.

Every month except February. :o

Eh Latino month, Asian month, Native American month, but still that is 8 other months.

hahahahahahah

There should be a Poupee month

Veterans day covers all veterans. Union and confederate even. It's a racist redneck holiday because the confederacy stood for it. Oh sure, not everyone from the south is a racist but the overwhelming majority was. And you know, racism is still going on strong down there.

Studied yes, how else do we learn from our mistakes? But celebrated?

ok as german...

we dont celebrate the day when Hitler took over the power, nor do we celebrate when his whole regime got took down by the allies....

if we would... that would be really macabre... honestly... so why should they celebrate when their "country" got taken down...

nyways:

Same for sexual harassment and emancipation - sometimes i get the feeling its a reverse sexual-repression ourdays... oh well <.<;;; - oh and dont forget:

This, and beeing called a Nazi after beein born over 40 years after the actual event only because you were born in a country you couldnt decide on *thumbsup* gotta give credit to anyone who stamps a person without even having a single clue <.<;

nyways ._. We needz moar holidayz? ;>.>

Woah, Native Americans have one?!
This is news.
Casinos AND a month? Greedy ***...wait...

Because the Yankees are living in a pure State in which Racism, and many other -isms, is non-existent.

And of course, them hick 'federates down yonder are still robbin' trains an' cookin' dat good ole Moonshine!

Your sheer contempt for the "Rednecks" pays an amazing testament to your arguments against "Confederacy Month." /sarcasm

Philosophically speaking, we're only told they're mistakes and can only make judgments based on what we know/what we're taught. "Killing is bad," but why it's bad is totally up to the person(Ex: Going to Hell).

As for the argument in general, it could be held for other celebrations, months, holidays, and the like, as well.

Ex:

We celebrate our Veterans' sacrifices to the point of declaring them "Heroes." Dare I say it, in many cases, this would also mean we're celebrating murder, rape, torture, genocide, and many other atrocities committed by our Soldiers throughout History.

Of course it does. Our history is multifaceted, containing heroes and heroines of all races, what's being argued is that we need to teach about them too, and until the curriculum is changed to adequately reflect our history, there will be history months to help ensure that history gets taught. Is any American of a sufficient age aware that the US once allowed the institution of slavery? Yes, but we still have individuals like the English class student mentioned a on the last page, that somehow believe that slave masters were doing blacks a favor. That is a symptom of the education systems failures.



If you use quotes in a way that falls outside of the normal conventions, you should understand when people might take offense. If you simply meant to draw attention to Heroes and Heroines, italics would be much better suited for that purpose, generally the use of quotes outside of their main purpose implies a mockery.



You say this like discrimination is a thing of the past, evidence of it is in your sentence.



It is, and it is already taught. For every Thomas Paine, there's a W.E.B. Du Bois, for every Thomas Edison, there's a George Washington Carver. There's already a filter in place, it just happens to filter out the majority of "those women and colored folk" (See, I can use them too.)


Did they emigrate from Germany after 1965? Once again discrimination is alive and well today. It didn't end with emancipation, it didn't end with the Civil Rights movement, but Jim Crow was alive and well in the early Sixties, and given your announcement of Yankee on the first page, I took an educated guess that you were from below the Mason-Dixon line. I did mention your father/grandfather in a more general term, and I can't prove that they ever used a Whites Only drinking fountain, but my father had to use a Colored Only drinking fountain which is the real point.


I absolutely feel that subjects like the Trail of Tears, Sitting Bull, Geronimo, the Wind Talkers and many others should be taught as well. Reparations to the Native Americans are also handled in part by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and if memory serves me correctly it entails a near unlimited hunting and fishing license, and if one lives on a reservation, monthly stipend among other services, but someone with more knowledge on the subject could probably speak to this more.

I would also like to point out that I never specifically called for monetary reparations, but if you're interested reparations have also been paid to the victims and the heirs of Japanese Internment.



History is written by the victors, but when history is known beyond that it is or should be taught, we teach about Dresden don't we?

Sure.



The colonization of Africa was a horrible thing, with it's own repercussions.


Indeed, a little over half of that of the white population.



only around 6 years shorter and making 20k less per year.


Only need to generally work harder to get it.


Not descended from slaves, his father emigrated from Africa.

Success stories, granted.


A hero who fought for equality, and was murdered for it.


And why do you think that is? Controlled breeding, to breed bigger and stronger workers. I'm sure that helped the slaves sleep better at night, knowing that future generations would have a better shot at winning a dunk contest.



Be thankful for getting whipped instead of being hung?


The animosity will stop when discrimination stops. As I mentioned in previous posts, everything wasn't made right at the moment of emancipation, racism and discrimination are still alive and well.



The exception, far from the rule. The average black person is at least 10% white, think about how that came about.



The Holocaust was over a very short time period. Also remember Hitler killed blacks as well, along with gypsies, homosexuals, Catholics, etc.

Slavery went on for hundreds of years, the number of those affected far exceeding that of the Third Reich. Both were responsible for murders and rapes, breaking up families, and treating human beings like livestock. And if you want medical experiments look no further than the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments.

Do not even consider a syphilis experment with skinning people alive or pulling out there tounges or eyes to see what kind of pain response they got. Not to mention useing their skin to make book covers for their mantle peices or lamp shades. Im not jewish or chzech or a gyspie or black or gay and the holocaust was the worst tragedy in human history recored and odds are even in the stuff thats not recorded.

Your so offended and decided to make a post on FFXIAH for the sole purpose that your black. I believe that with all my heart paulus. If you were any other race you would not mention this at all. If you were any other race your post wouldn't be so biased and one sided either. Now tell me how I should feel about this post being that I'm half irish, quarter native american, and quarter english? I'm the bunt of every irish joke on saint pattys, I get my anger and violent tendancies contributed to my Iruqois heritage (they were cannibals, look it up) or the fact that I'm a paler shade of white (don't tan easy, thank you english side) I got called White crayon, powder, pastey, ghost, whitie, kkk, redneck, and all other sorts of racial and prejudice terms my entire life growing up, not just from the mexicans at school (indio ca,) but every black friend I tried to make. This has left me not a racist man, just a very predjudice man yet I keep that to myself for the most part and bar it from the internet whenever I can. So where should I take your statement? You a. didnt do your homework as Sevourn so brilliantly pointed out, but you b. made some pretty ignorant statements comparing the confederates to nazis. Even on an ignorant standpoint one can say that confederates were for non-abolishing slavery and nazis killed jews. If thats the case you compare slavery to genocide? Pretty outlandish call imo.

This ^.

I've known you ingame on bahamut server and I like you paulus. But my opinion of you just dropped by alot. You may have valid points, this may be the way you feel, etc etc, its a free country, but dear god man if YOU WERENT BLACK you would not have written any of this, thats what bothers me. You dropped yourself to the level of every other black man in america crying over reprirations for slavery when THEY WERE NOT ALIVE DURING SUCH SAD EVENT IN US HISTORY. Slavery is bad, I agree. But don't use your race and weight to throw around against another races wish to celebrate a period in US History. This is the same as me making a thread explaining that Black History month is a waste of *** time. Everyone would go apeshit and call me a racist bigot if I did that.

ramblings:

When I lived in North Carolina during my 6th-9th grade years black history month was always super awkward..alot of the time I was literally the only white girl in my class. So when February came around and everybody was praying and singing and partying and writing papers on their favorite black rolemodel in history, I severely felt out of place. Its like "hi..uhh..Im a white person.."

not that I dont understand the significance but I certainly felt more comfortable living on the west coast 8| Confederate month would be just as awkward, Im sure, and it makes it sound like the south is still bitter over losing rather than being proud of any heritage. I used to go to school with a girl who drove around with a confederate flag on her car and used to get flack for it...which would send her into a rampant speech about what the flag actually symbolizes and people just see the negative connotations to it. Well durr, its like driving with a nazi flag..why do you purposefully drive around with something known to be negative and then get upset over it? I just really roll my eyes because this whole confederacy thing was 150+ years ago, you dont have any confederate pride and neither did your grandparents. I think it belongs in a history museum onry. You can sit back and say "wow, the civil war sure did help shape the country" but it certainly has no effect on you today as a person.

I did take a course on American history where I had to write papers and paragraphs and essays on the significance of happenings during the civil war and I understand that that war was more than just a war over slaves. It had alot to do with economy and the lifestyle differences between the north and the south. The south dug themselves into a hole they didnt think the North understood they couldnt get out of and then the North forced them to change against their will (which was I think in most non southern people, was for the better)

Its an important to learn about because similar situations occur presently. Big overhauls happen and people get mad and then we move on.

I dont really know why people would complain that the civil war isnt being taught enough. I was taught about it in nearly every year of my life in every history class I ever took; then again I was raised military and have been to schools all over the country so maybe Im not getting such a narrow perspective on things.

If anything though, obviously American history no longer exists after WW2...I've never ever been taught wtf Watergate was in school. I felt so HELP I AM TRAPPED IN 2006 PLEASE SEND A TIME MACHINE not knowing what watergate was that I had to wikipedia it. Even then, rarely does anybody know what WWI was about either..American history literally jumps from Civil war---> WWII.