Is he opening a can of worms or putting a spotlight on a can that has food and showing it has worms?
Actor Morgan Freeman, one of Hollywood’s best character actors ever, has problably ruffled some feathers with this one:
NEW YORK -Morgan Freeman says the concept of a month dedicated to black history is “ridiculous.”
“You’re going to relegate my history to a month?” the 68-year-old actor says in an interview on CBS’ “60 Minutes” to air Sunday (7 p.m. EST). “I don’t want a black history month. Black history is American history.”
Black History Month has roots in historian Carter G. Woodson’s Negro History Week, which he designated in 1926 as the second week in February to mark the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.
Woodson said he hoped the week could one day be eliminated — when black history would become fundamental to American history.
So indeed, you could make the case that black history month is — now, in the 21st Century — a bit less of an honor. It’s almost as if society is saying: “OK, let’s go along with it to keep these guys happy, but before you know it the month will be over and we go back to normal and teach regular history!”
Freeman notes there is no “white history month,” and says the only way to get rid of racism is to “stop talking about it.”
If there’s a Jewish history month it should include the history of Chinese food. AND:
The actor says he believes the labels “black” and “white” are an obstacle to beating racism.
“I am going to stop calling you a white man and I’m going to ask you to stop calling me a black man,” Freeman says.
Freeman has the point: why should it just be a month? Why not be sure that black history is mixed in in steady doses for students? And he’s right about the labels in race (and we feel the same truism holds in politics).
Indeed, some forty years ago Tom Lehrer wrote and recorded a classic song parody, National Brotherhood Week (full lyrics HERE) which lampooned the idea of a “week” devoted to brotherhood. Lehrer’s classic lyrics included:
It’s only for a week so have no fear
Be grateful that it doesn’t last all year!
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.