<p>What are your schools doing to celebrate our history??</p>
<p>Most of my teachers are pretty much doing the same ol same ol extra credit black history assignment. it nice but many students just choose to do the typical mlk, malcolm x, Harriet T. , etc projects. I usually make an effort to pick someone most people haven't heard of.</p>
<p>Our BSU is also trying to put on an African/African American history concert w/ African dancers, poets, speakers, and African american groups (singing, stepping, etc)but we're finding that money is short and this is going to be hard to pull off</p>
<p>Um well our BSU put together a festival type thing in our multipurpose room. All the moms made different types of soul food. My mom made Sweet Potatoe Souffle, and there was also cornbread, mac & cheese, fried chicken, rolls, greens, baked beans, green beens, some kenyan dish, and different types of dessert. Then my friends mom had a hair braiding booth, we also had an AIDS booth, and a couple others that provided information on various topics. Then we had people perform. One guy did a RAP on social issues, a girl sang the black national athem with the BSU choir as backup, she then did a few other songs, and we all did the cha cha slide. It lasted for around 2.5 hours, and it was in the middle of the day. (my school has a really weird schedule because it's a prep school so most people only have 3 hours a day of classes and 4 hours to do whatever...so it was convenient to have it in the middle of the day when people could come in and out)</p>
<p>My school is having a door decorating contest. Each teacher has a famous African American that was assigned or they pick their favorite in history. They dress up their doors, which pictures or anything creative. My teacher made a 3-D Ray Charles on her door, with music and a piano. This is the first year we have done this, usually it is the same extra credit projects.</p>
<p>I always hated Black History Month in high school. My teachers never did anything innovative -- it was always the same "write a paper about an African American," "design a poster/collage/some other dinky art project about an African American," etc. And everyone always did the same people. There was no real attempt to engage students in actually discovering the history of a people who were integral to the development of this nation the way it is today. We never took the time out to cover slavery, the Civil War period (and how many black men fought on both sides), Reconstruction and how some black people rose to political power during this period, blacks in the military during World Wars I and II, the Civil Rights Movement (beyond "Rosa Parks sat down on a bus")...see what I mean? Not to mention coverage of black history in other countries: apartheid in South Africa, black migration around Western Europe, the ancient civilizations of Africa.</p>
<p>We spotlighted several people and it gave the sense that black history was something APART from the rest of American history, as if black history happened in a vacuum not integrated within the fabric of American and world history. So I hated it. I made a conscious effort to attempt to choose "different" black people no one else knew about and had heard of, but that's always hard because there often isn't enough information written about them.</p>
<p>Even now...I go to Columbia and Columbia's not really doing anything for BHM, and I'm grateful and resentful at the same time. And I see some of the venues in New York "celebrating" black history month. Which amounts to changing their wall art to some art done by an African American person, or Barnes & Noble changed their featured books to some books written by black people. IMO that's not celebrating black history, that's recognizing black people as tokens in American society.</p>
<p>Man, if I ever become a social studies teacher my students are going to hate me because I'm going to get serious about BHM. I will expressly prohibit everyone from doing reports on Martin Luther King, Jr., Harriet Tubman, and Madame C.J. Walker; anyone who does Malcolm X will have to comment on his post-militant history as much or more than they do on his militant part; and all students will be required to not just write about the person but about the social context that person lived in and how that shaped his or her life, beliefs, ideas, and how the context made them an extraordinary person.</p>
<p>Yea, My school's not doing anything. I kind of wish they did, half the students don't even know it's Black History Month. My friend and I, the only black students in our class wished ourselves Happy Black History Month at the beginning of the month, that was the closest to acknowledgment we have heard in our school so far. Its really sad but there's nothing I can do, it's not important if 2% of the school's 1000 student population is African American.</p>
<p>My school isn't doing anythign what so ever but what can you expect from a school that until this year only had 5 Black students. And is in a town where Jim Crow laws are techncally still on the books. It makes me sad cause we don't study anything remotely rated. Even in History and English. Zip!</p>
<p>I'm actually glad that my school doesn't have Student Unions that are specific to one race. I feel like it excludes other people who want to join. Like it I wanted to learn more about Latin American culture I should be able to join, right? In most schools this isn't the case.</p>
<p>We didn't do anything for African American history but we also didn't do anything for Latin American History Month or Chinese New Year, for example. We already study African American History in our school so its not as vital as it was back in the 1920s.</p>
<p>nothing, which is kind of depressing when i think about it. but even when we "celebrated" black history month in years past, it was only a person on the morning show reading a biography of a famous black person. and i don't even think anyone really paid attention. then again, i didn't even pay attention.</p>
<p>I'm vice-president of my school's BSU and we're holding the second annual cultural extravaganza assembly. It's essentially a black history month assembly, but our advisor suggested changing the name to make it more PC which is ridiculous because it's obvious that the parade is about black history. lol!</p>
<p>DreamingOutLoud: What you said about student unions doesn't have to be true. At my school there are people of other races in the unions. Everybody is really supportive. One of my best friends, who is white, is part of the black student union. Just like with Asian club and the Jewish student Union, nobody feels that they need to be a part of that culture to belong. It depends on how it is advertised, and frankly, how your schools race relations are in general. My school actually has a huge Asian club, but Asians make up .5% of our population, so most people in the club are white.</p>
<p>We don't have unions either. I don't really know enough to comment but I think that it would be nice if my school had a way for the students to orgainize and give ideas. We don't get any say in what happens at our school and it sucks.</p>
<p>"DreamingOutLoud: What you said about student unions doesn't have to be true. At my school there are people of other races in the unions. Everybody is really supportive. One of my best friends, who is white, is part of the black student union. Just like with Asian club and the Jewish student Union, nobody feels that they need to be a part of that culture to belong. It depends on how it is advertised, and frankly, how your schools race relations are in general. My school actually has a huge Asian club, but Asians make up .5% of our population, so most people in the club are white."</p>
<p>Our school has great race relations and that's why I think some student unions would be a problem. The way your school does it is awesome but I know of a few schools where the clubs are exclusive (You can't be White in the Asian Student Union, or Muslim in the Jewish Student Union, etc). </p>
<p>What do people actually do in such Student Unions? If anyone could shed some light on it, that would be great.</p>
<p>my school reads a generic fact about black history over the anouncements every day.
you know, who george washington carver was....rosa parks...the usual.</p>
<p>oh! there is also a lovely display of prominent black leaders in the library which is kindda cool.</p>