Letter to the Editor [In response to “Black History Month racist” in the Feb. 13 issue.]

I must admit I got upset and seriously offended by the commentary. The first thing I wanted to do was retaliate with negativity. The late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. taught our nation about the power of love and respect for one human to another. So, I chose to address this article with information and clarity.

The author, Kaitlyn Turner, believes that African American people shouldn’t have a national month to themselves because it is unfair, racist, and unequal to everyone because more than just African Americans have made this country what it is today. She says that “Black History Month, as well as Asian and Hispanic History Month, is seen as a way of setting people of color equal to white people who supposedly discriminated against them.”

Turner strongly suggests in her article that we Americans have defined ourselves as “one nation under god indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

Black History Month was not designated a national month to take away acknowledgements of other ethic contribution to this country. Black History Month was designated because so many extraordinary African American people have faced adversity and conflict to ensure that freedom could be achieved.

Think about the blood, sweat, tears, and lives that were lost behind slavery and the civil rights movements. It is almost impossible to imagine being forced to work in a cotton field were it’s extremely hot being beaten, hanged, spit on, raped, and the only name you have is some inappropriate racial slur.

When slavery ended and freedom was born, African American people still were not free, and this is where the Civil Rights Movement began. Black History Month was earned and designated because we as a people fought one hell of a fight for over 400 years, and that fight is definitely worth one month of recognition out of twelve.

African American people however didn’t win this fight alone, as it was a collective movement of black people and white people who cared and felt that the oppression that African American people suffered needed to end.

It is important for us to realize that without Black History Month, the contributions made by so many African American leaders and individuals would be either forgotten or extinct. I wrote this article because I wanted to give Turner and whoever may share the same views as her a different perspective and insight into the struggle and fight that African Americans “supposedly” endured.

Edward Hickerson

Pierce College student