I believe everyone is included, is invited to celebrate, and gets the day off regardless of race, religion, or beliefs.

I agree with this but unless I'm mistaken, doing this gets you painted with the "woke" brush.

Of course not! That would make you a racist! :p

History wasn't color blind; color had a lot to do with historical events.

Now, if you mean that history should be taught without singling out any particular color, race, nationality, etc, I agree with that. The concern is that it isn't being taught that way. I don't know if that's true. I remember learning about black historical figures as well as white.

I remember learning about positive events as well as negative events. I am sure that there is more history about blacks in America that I could have learned but I am also sure that there is more history about whites (or Asians or Irish or Canadians) in America that I could have learned. I haven't attended a grade-school history class in a very long time so all I know is what I hear on the news and I've learned be skeptical of that.

If you have followed the posts on this site, I am sure you have your answer.

You came to the wrong state for this.

Movies are the worst possible source to look for actual, factual history or other information. They are produced primarily to make money. The actual history is embellished and even misportrayed in order to generate high emotions for both entertainment and propaganda purposes.

Hmm.... I'm not convinced movies are worse than online forums.

History should absolutely -not- be color blind. It should be inclusive, not exclusive. Atrocities were committed on a variety of peoples throughout history, American, European, World - of all races, all Nationalities, all religions, all ethnicities, all genders, disabilities, abilities, sexual preferences, marital status, lack of marital status. We need to accept these histories, learn OF them, and learn FROM them.

Otherwise it'll just continue to happen. Maybe black folks will be the "target du jour" again once we're done with the transgender trend. Or maybe all those anti-abortion nuts will start targeting women who don't have children, and start a brand new tirade a la Handmaid's Tale, berating them for not marrying and whelping the next generation. Or maybe they'll come back to the Jews. Or maybe it'll be the Irish again. Or the Italians again. Or maybe old people again.

Round and round it goes, where it stops, everyone knows. As long as we say "let's not talk about that, it is unpleasant and hey look how great we are now!" we will continue the cycle.

If the teaching of history was color blind, we would not have learned about Rosa Parks. She is known BECAUSE she was a black activist. If she were a white activist, she wouldn't have become the tipping point of the Civil Rights Movement. If Martin Luther King, Jr. wasn't black, he wouldn't have been nearly as influential as he became - and probably wouldn't have been assassinated.

Many things have happened in this country -because- this or that person, group of people, church, school, child, was black.

How do you think the Civil War would've gone, if the slaves were all white Irish instead of black African?

Exactly. I'm not surprised at the reactions on this forum...entirely predictable. I personally think a holiday like this makes a lot more sense than one like Columbus Day.

Nothing bad with looking at the bad as well as the good. And there is also the great. The various Smithsonian museums are a great place to check the best of US history out. They rather recently opened up an African American history museum in DC. A People’s Journey, A Nation’s Story | National Museum of African American History and Culture

I disagree. I didn't learn about Rosa Parks because there was a unit on blacks in America and her name was pulled out of a hat, I learned about Rosa Parks because she had a significant role in American history. The same for Dr. MLK and other historical figures: I believe I learned about them due to their impact on American history, not because of their color.

Who knows if Dr. King would have been assassinated if he was not black. There were two Kennedy assassinations in the same timeframe even though they were not black.

It is true that many things in this country have occurred because someone was or was not black (or white or Asian or Irish or Canadian) and that is why choosing what history to teach should be color blind. Choose the events to teach regardless of color, don't look at color and then pick events to fill a quota.

Nicely said. I had an African American History Professor while at the U of Nevada, Reno who was one of my better history professors. A few of them threw in as much sex and violence as possible. He was not one of these. I had to drop English History because we had to do a speech on a topic and I doubted if I could do anything with the students attracted to that kind of course which highlighted the sex lives of the English royalty and the like.

None of my ancestors owned slaves. I've never owned a slave, in fact I've never met a slave, so I feel no guilt because slavery happened in this country. There is no one in this country that was alive during that time in history and there is no one alive now that was a slave. Slavery has been practiced by every country in the world and every race has been a source of slaves at one time or another. As was pointed out by another poster, slavery still happens in some countries.
My, a bunch of greats, grandfather on my mother's side of the family, got in trouble with the law in England. In the mid 1700's he was forcibly sent to America as an indentured servant, not much different than a slave. He was able to gain his freedom by fighting as a soldier in the Revolutionary War and served at Valley Forge. It was a pretty common practice by the owners of indentured servants to extend their servitude by claiming that their upkeep added their indebtedness with no end in sight in paying off the debt. I want my bunches of great grandfather to have his holiday for his forced labor.