#kohenari

One of the fun things about using Tumblr as a blogging platform is that people can tag their posts with anything they’d like, including the names of other Tumblr users. So, there’s a “kohenari” tag and people can search through it or even follow it to make sure they don’t miss anything that gets posted there.

I just looked at it and it’s filled almost exclusively with posts from a handful of anonymous people who don’t like something I wrote at some point during the past three years. Well, that and my few blogging friends posting funny comments I wrote on posts of theirs. It’s so fitting that “my tag” has nothing but five people who think I’m nice and four people who hope I’ll get hit by a bus.

This is why the internet is a marvel.

New Policy

Henceforth, I’m ignoring bigots and trolls.

To be clear, I like it very much when people comment on the blog or send me questions; I like when people comment on Facebook links to the blog; I like when people send me tweets about my blog posts.

I don’t like when people curse at me, make racist, homophobic, or anti-Semitic comments to me, belabor a point about which they’re simply incorrect, claim that their anonymous, unverifiable, two sentence anecdote is evidence that my blog post is obviously a lot of nonsense, or simply want to pick a fight they have no intention of actually fighting.

To wit:

If you think I’m wrong, I’ll be very happy to hear about why I’m wrong. But if you can’t explain to me why I’m wrong, maybe just don’t send the note in the first place.

A few more helpful examples:

If you think that simply telling me you knew some people from Group X who were bad people so everyone from Group X is bad, then you’ll pardon me if I don’t respond to you. I know some people from Group X and they’re awesome.

And if you haven’t bothered to actually read the whole piece that has gotten you so furious with me — and people of my ilk — then you’ll understand why I don’t take the time to write back. Because you missed the part that disproves the stuff you’re yelling at me about.

And if you write to me every single time I post something on my blog to snidely inform me that you came up with a weird exception that you’re sure disproves what I’ve written, and if you then tell me quite directly that you will never, ever change your mind about anything that you believe, I hope you’ll know that ignoring you is really just the only sensible thing I can do.

Feel free to keep writing. And know that your messages are getting through. I’m just ignoring you.

At the end of the day, I’m in the education business, not the bashing my head against a wall business.

White History Month

Not surprisingly, there’s been a lot of discussion kicked up by my “White History Month” photoset from Friday. I’m guessing that, sadly, this post won’t reach all of the people who helped kick that post around Tumblr some 20,000+ times. Still, this reply seems an important one to make.

A number of people have written to me to demand that I explain why I included one tweet that asked about the lack of months designated for other ethnicities: “Where’s latino history month? Where’s asian history month? Where’s white history month? Where’s native American history month?”

Here’s someone who just cares about equality, many commenters have proclaimed; he’s not a racist!

One thing’s for sure: He’s not much of a researcher.

September 15-October 15 is National Hispanic American Heritage Month.

May is Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month.

November is Native American Heritage Month.

These heritage months — and all of the others that exist — have dedicated government websites, filled with information. Many communities around the country put on events to celebrate the distinct history and culture, and to recognize the contributions of its members to our society.

In short, this is a fascinating comment … but only insofar as it shows how many people never visit their public library, where there’s almost always a table set up to showcase authors from particular cultures each month, and how many people are much quicker to complain about Black History Month than to, for example, do a Google search.

It’s also fascinating because it’s a comment — like most White History Month tweets and comments — whose author is intent on masquerading as someone who cares desperately about equality.

Of course, there’s also a strain of commentary whose authors attack Black History Month because it’s racist insofar as it highlights some people based on their skin color. These commenters are mostly white teenagers who claim to be color blind or to live in some sort of post-racial America. They love equality so much that they don’t want Black History Month or White History Month … they just want it all to be history. I have no doubt that they believe these things to be true about themselves, or that they want them to be true. But, alas, they are not true.

These people either can’t or don’t understand that the vast majority of “textbook history,” at least in the United States, is still written by and about white people. And this is a problem that’s particularly relevant for white teens, as they’re currently taking courses in American and European history; they are consuming little information that isn’t white history, even as they complain about the ways in which Black History Month perpetuates racial identification over our common humanity. People of color, women, religious minorities, and the LGBTQ community have been given short shrift in our educational system for as long as it has existed; allowing that this has been the case and attempting to supplement our historical knowledge is a pretty worthwhile idea. If you don’t believe me, maybe you can quickly send me a note with a list of twenty important historical or cultural achievements made by African-Americans.

But they’re also sorely mistaken if they really believe that there’s something inherently problematic with celebrating the distinct histories, cultures, and people who have made the country what it is today. That’s not racism or reverse racism or whatever other kind of nonsense they think it is. That’s a way of encouraging a well-rounded education that might help bring about the utopian future that these commenters think has already arrived. And a video clip of Morgan Freeman from 2005, which has been sent to me dozens of times, isn’t going to convince me otherwise. Unlike some people out there, I don’t think Morgan Freeman speaks for (or happens to be) every African-American.

Now, would it be better if there was magically no further need of specific months dedicated to different minority populations in America? You bet. If it really was the case, as Morgan Freeman wants to claim, that Black history is treated like the part of American history that it is, we’d be in much better shape as a society today than we actually are. But the only way that we won’t need a Black History Month is if we take a good look at the way that history is taught and culture is celebrated in this country with a view to seamlessly integrating the historical and cultural experiences and achievements of minority communities.

Until that time, I’d say it’s a good idea to dial back these inane calls for White History Month and these nonsensical comments about how Black History Month perpetuates racism.