Dear Morgan Freeman,

Your offense and arguments against Black History Month on ’60 Minutes’ discount the influence black awareness has on all minority groups. Mr. Freeman, you claimed the mere existence and celebration of a Black History Month is the biggest barrier to a future racial equality. And when asked, ‘How’re we going to get rid of racism then?’ you replied, ‘Stop talking about it. I’m going to stop calling you a white man, and I’m going to ask you to stop calling me a black man.’

Stop calling me a white man or a black man. Black History Month is a celebration of America’s most influential subculture, birthed in protest to white privilege politics. Black history, black activism holds a significant and powerful relevance to the minorities and disenfranchised of all ethnic groups that have shaped this country’s history. The black struggle for equality mirrors the various stages of equality politics that every ethnic group faces.

I am new. I am the son of immigrants, and maybe that’s why I am less willing to part with my own ethnic ‘label.’ I was born in New Jersey, and I can tell you right now the Korean language that was first sung, chirped and shouted in my house escapes me. Although I delight in Korean food, I could live without it if I had to. But my mother can’t. Her intelligence is belittled by the English language, which constricts the diversity of the thoughts in her brilliant head. Without cooking daily with the recipes, spices and love her mother cooks with in Korea, she grows bitter and substantially depressed. Taking away ethnic labels would be taking away my mother.

If we all simply stop calling each other what often greatly identifies us and qualifies us within our predominantly white society, then ethnicity in effect will become null, and ethnic minorities and their cultures will fade. In a country that plays so heavily on identity, minorities will never be released from the oppression of color because prejudice will not allow them to. My brothers and sisters of color, why not embrace our identities?

Our president is black. Our Congress is white. And any tan or yellow people can’t seem to even find themselves on a television screen. Regardless of the notions of a future racial utopia, the dividing lines of ethnicity remain a bold societal reality.

A pride in culture and difference allows for people to respect one another. So let us keep acknowledging it every day: the ethnicities, the variety, the parents who influence every decision we make and shape the way we form what we see.

Let us make every month a Black History Month so we can pay tribute to ethnic diversity every day, rather than for only 28 days a year.

Sincerely,

Joshua Myungseop Lee

Josh Lee is a sophomore communication and rhetorical studies major. His column appears online every Thursday, and he can be reached at jalee172@syr.edu.

Published on February 27, 2011 at 12:00 pm