“If a race has no history, it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated. The American Indian left no continuous record. He did not appreciate the value of tradition, and where is he today?”
—American historian and scholar Carter G. Woodson, 1926.
As covered in last week’s cover story, Black History Month began through the works of Carter G. Woodson. This led to it being formally recognized as a month-long period of observance by then-President Gerald R. Ford in February of 1976, in keeping with the country’s Bicentennial celebration.
Ford justified his decision as a way of shedding light on a marginalized segment of the population and more specifically “…to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans.”
Since then, it has received its fair share of criticism, including the possibility that it promotes divisiveness from those who feel responsible for the hardships endured in the struggle for equality and actually. encourages separation and unfairly penalizes individuals who bear no responsibility for past injustices.
In essence, these well-meaning gestures fuel racial tension by creating new inequities. The old adage of “two wrongs don’t make a right” spawned an era of “reverse discrimination,” which may be a root cause of the polarization witnessed today. This overlooks the fact that European history was and is the bedrock of American culture. That said, Eurocentric celebrations like Oktoberfest and Saint Patrick’s Day have been observed in the United States long before the concept of Black History.
Inclusiveness, resentment, and self-criticism
“Freedom and the recognition of individual rights are what our revolution was all about. They were ideals that inspired our fight for independence: ideals that we have been striving to live up to ever since.”
—from President Gerald R. Ford’s 1976 message heralding the establishment of Black History Month
This precedent was the result of a shift towards liberalism in the latter half of the 20th century. The working middle class, who enjoyed a stable, if not extravagant, living in the postwar era, endured discomfort with the wave of political correctness (“PC”) that made expressions, ideas, or jokes that were commonplace previously objectionable. Particularly remarkable was the trend towards revisionist history, as the story of America was retold from a different perspective.
For Art Cribbs, this frame of reference presented no discomfort. As a homegrown Southern Californian, his minister father embraced his indigenous ancestry, encouraging the family to root for the Indians as they watched the westerns that were a staple in movie houses and television during the 20th century.
He brought these sensibilities into the pursuit of journalism as an adult, digging into the overlooked culture of Indian communities of Nevada and the Northwestern United States. In the process he exposed a rich, vibrant civilization beneath the stereotypes of alcoholism and lawlessness prevalent in the collective consciousness. These formative adventures as a young man enabled him to look behind the shroud of “American Exceptionalism” that dominates discussions about the undeniable achievements of “the New World.”
“’American Exceptionalism’ is a contrived term bolstered by ego-driven narcissism,” he said when asked about Black History’s importance in the grand scheme.
“The United States puts a tremendous amount of resources into weapons of mass destruction. Thus, it is a reflection of values and principles that guide our actions.”
As a result, attention must be directed at the long-term repercussions of outstanding economic and technological achievement. Embarking on his own ministry as a pastor, he continues his scrutiny of an American journey, reflecting the highs and lows of humanity.
“From the massacre of Native Americans to the enslavement of Africans to the development of atomic bombs, there is a consistent pattern of thought and behavior that leads to a reduction in the value of human life and the natural environment,” said Cribbs.
Cribbs also suggests that, if nothing else, Black History provides a more balanced view of the American experience but also hinders our participation on the international stage as the U.S. further steps into the role of global policeman, through the Trump administration’s involvement in other foreign political affairs.
“As a nation we have the platitudes but lack the moral conscience to behave civilly,” said Cribbs.
What is America?
“Over the past decade, Americans have witnessed a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth. This revisionist movement seeks to undermine the remarkable achievements of the United States by casting its founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light. Under this historical revision, our nation’s unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness is reconstructed as inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed.”
—from an Executive Order by Donald J. Trump on March 27, 2025.
Not everyone is on board with the idea of self-reflection. The idea of the country’s uniqueness provided the motivation for a multitude of sins, from slaughtering Indians to make way for the enrichment of European cast-offs, to the abduction of Africans for cheap labor, to the displacement of Japanese Americans as possible security risks, a suspicion that still rings true today in the midst of questionable detainments and threats of mass deportations.
This tradition of forgetfulness is likely to continue throughout the rest of the millennium.
Contributing to this article are two young adults of the African Diaspora, both college educated, who agreed to share their thoughts on the condition that they not be identified, a reasonable condition given the current political climate. Identifying under the aliases Sea Dee and Leah, they both benefit from the perspective of being “thirty-something,” giving them the advantage of career experience as grown-ups whose professional history bridges the period before and during the Trump administration.
Sea Dee benefited from the sacrifices made by his Caribbean immigrant parents. He has significant, if not overwhelming, success in this, the Information Age, as a software engineer.
“American exceptionalism represents the journey of finding a way to create success for yourself and live beyond the average American experience,” he said.
In spite of his own personal success, he acknowledges the considerable hypocrisy inherent within the system, which, in his view, has resulted in the dysfunction that makes us a divided country.
Leah enjoys her position as a recruiter in Human Resources for a major corporation, with a bird’s-eye view of the economy’s ebb and flow, which is directly tied to whom society deems employable and who is not. In her view, Trump is merely a symptom of society’s discontent and not the cause.
“For many of us, these obstacles have always existed, and we’ve always been aware of them,” she says, indicating that recent presidential elections have merely brought a multitude of issues such as racism and sexism, to the forefront.
“…we’ve opened up silent wounds and emboldened troubled people with our current leader,” she continues.
The past foreshadowing the present
“Black History is one powerful way to improve American knowledge about our historical inequities and to foster deeper understanding of the contributions of millions of African Americans to every feature of American life and culture.”
—UCLA faculty member since 1968, Paul Von Blum.
Paul Von Blum had his life mapped out for him in childhood as the son of a Holocaust survivor. This was reinforced at the age of 14, when the Ku Klux Klan burnt a cross on his lawn near Philadelphia. Swept up into the Civil Rights Movement as an adult, he made the rounds of marches, protests, and sit-ins until his 1964 arrest, when a San Diego judge gave him an ultimatum of three months in jail or enrollment in law school.
As a member of the state bar since then, Von Blum is quick to point out that “law is my side gig,” meaning that he is devoted to teaching rather than the legal entanglements associated with the judicial system.
His major focus remains in academia, where UCLA has given him the title Senior Lecturer Emeritus. Occasionally lured into courtrooms for pro bono work, he feels his place is in class as he bemoans the woeful state of education, as inadequate as it was during his Pennsylvania childhood. Underscoring the specter of genocide, be it the slaughter of American Indians, the brutality in the farmlands of the American South, or the incineration of Jews in the crematoriums of Europe, is an essential component of the curriculum for every generation, in his view.
It amazes him that students in an elite university like UCLA are so uninformed about the sordid underbelly of American and Western history. On the flip side, conservative factions claim that recent preoccupation with minority achievement has been cited as a possible motivation for the current instability in the American psyche. Von Blum acknowledges this to a certain extent.
“There is significant polarization, largely caused by the racism and extreme policies of the Trump administration,” he says, adding that their flagrant presence on our collective consciousness is actually beneficial in the long run.
“I don’t think polarization is as horrific as many people say it is. It brings widespread attitudes of racism, sexism, homophobia, and xenophobia to the forefront and, accordingly, allows those malevolent attitudes and behaviors to be confronted and resisted more effectively.”
As an octogenarian, Von Blum’s observations coincide with the professionals a half century younger than he is. As Leah points out, the events of the past decade have merely brought to the surface what many of us have already known.
“It has just revealed the inequalities that have always existed and how difficult it is for Black and Brown people to achieve the American Dream in this country,” said Leah.
In this way, the whole Make America Great Again movement may be a silver lining by shedding light on a cancer that has already festered below the surface.
“I suppose with striking down things like affirmative action, etc., it has made it more difficult to achieve, but for many of us those obstacles have always existed, and we’ve always been aware of them,” said Leah.
The next chapter is yet to be rewritten, possibly by the next Black History Month.