This country was built, quite literally, by Black people. There’s a lot of horrific history that’s been whitewashed to make the people doing the oppressing feel better about themselves. As a white person I know that it is not my place to speak for any POC, but instead to amplify their voices and fight for the equality that they should have had this entire time.
It’s super important to remember that it’s our job to do the research and that no person is responsible for explaining their trauma for your benefit. You aren’t helping anybody by relying on their emotional labor to teach you. I believe that knowledge is power and that we should always be trying to learn more, so I headed to the internet to add to my knowledge base.
Of course it’s easy to start with some of the most notable Black people from history like Martin Luther King, Jr, Rosa Parks, and Harriet Tubman, but there’s so much more history we need to acknowledge. African American History Month has an entire website devoted to educational history. PBS has an article on lesser known facts from Black History. Oprah Mag has a quick write up on why Black History month falls in February.
For the first time in history one half of the Presidential office is a woman. Not just a woman, but a woman who is Black and Asian. Progress is being made, but there’s still a lot of work to do. Black Lives Matter.