With just one week left in Black History Month, have you done anything to teach your kids about the significance and importance of devoting a whole month to focusing on African-American history?
Don't just assume the school's got it covered. While they're undoubtedly doing something, there's not time to do enough.
And, your kids need to know that you see the subject as worthy of your time and attention as a family.
No worries if you've ignored this event so far. You won't need to spend hours on Google preparing black history lesson plans.
More than teaching facts, the importance of Black History Month is to instill awareness and a certain attitude in your children, and to lead by example.
The History of Black History Month
Perhaps you've heard people joke that when the deciders of such things made Black History Month official, they choose the shortest month of the year to honor our African-American heritage.
The choice was neither random nor an intentional slight. Black History Month grew out of Negro History Week, a tradition started by journalist Carter J. Woodson in 1926, in response to the lack of any teachings on black culture and history in the school classrooms.
Woodson choose the second week of February as Negro History Week, and modern-day Black History Month is an expansion of what he started.
Four Important Talking Points With Your Kids
The subject of black history can be a bit overwhelming. Where does one begin?
Truth is, while expanding from a week-long focus on the topic to a month-long commitment was an improvement, the amount of "need to know" information out there about black history can hardly be done justice in a month.
While your particular focus can follow your interests as well as your children's, here are four starting points for discussion and learning.
1. Black History is American History
The history of black and white people in America is completely intertwined. Slavery in America began in 1619, when 20 African slaves arrived by ship to the British colony of Jamestown, Virginia. Less than a year later, in 1620, the first pilgrims arrived in Massachusetts.
Our budding nation was built into an economic stronghold in part off the backs of the African slaves who were responsible for the tobacco and cotton crop production.
Even in the North, where slavery was not nearly as widespread, many businessmen found wealth in the slave trade and through investments in southern plantations.
As our nation continued to develop, wars were fought by black and white soldiers, new inventions developed by black and white Americans continued to improve our quality of life, and important American values were shaped by black and white activists.
A good starting point with your kids then, is that when we talk about black history, we're really talking about the important stuff that's been left out of what our history books deem "American history."
2. Significant Black Leaders
Depending on their ages, your kids are probably familiar with names like Martin Luther King, Jr,. Malcolm X, Harriet Tubman, and Rosa Parks. But what do they really know about the contributions of these great leaders?
And again, it's important they learn that not only were these great champions of the black cause, but that they were great Americans, regardless of their color.
A visit to the library will reveal books about the most well-known black leaders that tell age-appropriate stories of the contributions they made.
Such stories will be more interesting to your children than just giving them factual information, and will put meaning behind the familiar names.
But it's also important to go beyond the "famous" people, and show your kids that "ordinary" black people they've never heard of were also making an extraordinary impact on the world.
Again, look at your child's interests, but some starting points might be Phillis Wheatley, the first African-American to have a work of poems published, and Zora Neale Hurston, another powerful black author.
This collection of 14 black inventors is also a good example of how blacks have been making crucial contributions alongside their white counterparts throughout history.
3. It's Not Always Pretty
From slavery to Jim Crow laws to the racial injustices that have created the Black Lives Matter movement, there are many parts of black history that are uncomfortable and sad.
In an age appropriate way, this has to be acknowledged. And, teaching our children about the wrongs of the past will help develop them into leaders who know how to do better in the future.
Some of the ugly facts include slaves being treated as property, lynchings, and sexual exploitation of the women by their masters. The Jim Crow laws saw separate but equal facilities that were anything but equal for blacks.
Racism expressed today through employment discrimination, hate crimes, and police shootings shows that in many ways we haven't come near as far as we like to think from the time that blacks couldn't sit at the white lunch counter, at the front of the bus, or in the same school desks as white children.
This is modern day history, and our kids have the power to shape it in the right direction.
4. Embracing Diversity, Overcoming Stereotypes, and Learning from Each Other
While it may not technically be history, one big takeaway from your discussions about Black History Month should be that we still have a long way to go, and if we want to be the best nation we can, it's important to embrace diversity and work to overcome stereotypes that are unfortunately ingrained in us.
No matter how evolved we are, it's impossible for white people to walk in the skin of black people and feel some of the battles they face daily in situations where we take ease and comfort for granted.
Encourage your children to have open discussions, to avoid assumptions, and to acknowledge that we see the world through different eyes in many ways because of our skin color.
How to Celebrate Black History
To bridge some of these gaps that still exist between black and white culture requires that we become more familiar with black culture. And the best way to do this, and to actually celebrate black history, is to get more involved in black culture.
Yes, Black History Month is a good thing, but use it as a time to make a commitment to consistently improving your family's knowledge of black history and culture. Schedule an activity once a month that will put you in the middle of black culture (or any culture other than your own).
This can include eating at an ethnic restaurant, visiting museums, reading books or watching documentaries, attending ethnic festivals, and even arranging your own diversity awareness events to bring people of different backgrounds and colors together.
The more we know, the better we can become.
Hopefully you now have some ideas for how to celebrate black history not only this month, but to integrate it into you family's general view of American history and to become leaders in embracing and championing diversity.
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