Freeman Criticizes Black History Month

[EveningStar]

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."
More (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051216/ap_en_tv/people_morgan_freeman_3)

[Warlady]

There shouldn't be any history month donated to a certain race. I agree. It's ridiculous and divisive. If you're going to have history months at all it should be for American history. What they have done by having black history months and Hispanic history months is to exclude all others. It was caucasions who discovered America and to exclude them is obscene and exclusionary. As if white people are unimportant to the history of this great country. I once heard a black woman of some importance state that this country was built by slave labor. That is a lie. If the blacks who have that attitude want to be considered equals then they should act like Americans and stop this minority "you owe me" bullshit and become self reliant and successful.

[Patriot Heart]

I knew I liked Morgan! And I LOVE his voice!

[nene]

What Warlady said.

[Melz]

Unless things have changed, children DO learn of black history, along with American history. They are congruent and are taught beginning in junior high school nowadays. To dedicate a month to a race, recognizing the contribution that members of that race have brought to this country is to say that those folks are owed more recognition than any other person who has contributed to the greatness of this country.

It also serves as race baiting, so that whether you are supportive of such a month or not, you can't win.

[Charity]

I only wish schools could actually get basic American Constitutional History accurate. They spend so much time pandering to special interests that the basics get no attention at all. Poll the average 15 year old on naming the branches of Government and it all becomes painfully clear. :-(

[TSawyer2112]

:claps:He gets it. Black History Month is just one example. Take any title incorporating the word "black" as it applies to race and replace it with the word white and trot it out in front of some people and see what kind of disgusted/horrified reaction you get. A few examples:

Congressional White Caucus

White Entertainment Television

Illinois State University White Colleagues Association Scholarship Fund

White Music Month

National Association for the Advancement of White People (Okay I cheated a little on this one, but in this instance "colored" was another way of saying black)

Unfortunately for Freeman, his thinking on this doesn't fit into the agenda of people such as Jesse Jackson, "Calypso" Louie, Al Sharpton, etc. They and the libs have built up their own modern day social/political plantations through division based on race and they don't like it when people they think they own, go wandering off. Look at the criticism hurled at Bill Cosby after remarks he made regarding self-resposibility within the "black" community.

[Warlady]

I love my country. But all of this PC liberal crap that's destroying her is making me think about leaving. Belize sounds pretty cool.

[TSawyer2112]

I love my country. But all of this PC liberal crap that's destroying her is making me think about leaving. Belize sounds pretty cool.

You'd come back.:grin:

[BEST45CAL]

I love my country. But all of this PC liberal crap that's destroying her is making me think about leaving. Belize sounds pretty cool.

You'd leave me for...Belize?:cryrub:

[RayChuang]

Mind you, you really have to wonder how long before Mr. Freeman is shunned by his fellows on the Hollywood Left. :rolleyes:

[Large_Al]

Thanks Morgan!

[EveningStar]

I only wish schools could actually get basic American Constitutional History accurate. They spend so much time pandering to special interests that the basics get no attention at all. Poll the average 15 year old on naming the branches of Government and it all becomes painfully clear. :-(

However, that same 15 year old could probably tell you Martin Luther King's sperm count.

[DesertFox]

Belize ain't cool. It's hot.

There should be no special month except for the month dedicated to my family and its heroic heritage going back to Alexander the Great, down thru Julius Caesar, William of Normandy, Frederick the Great, Napoleon, and Patton. The women in my line include Cleopatra, Queen Elizabeth and Madame Curie.

[Beowulf]

Thank you, Morgan! Blacks ARE part of American history. They don't need special racially motivated recognition.
I knew I liked him for more than his acting abilities.

[Longhorn_Platinum]

:moo: Every now & then, a black student will try to take me to task for not being more sensitive toward Black History Month. My response is to ask them to tell me what Booker T. Washington's middle name was. One young man once replied, "Ooh, ooh, I know it, but I can't think of it, but I know it begins with a T".

[EveningStar]

I did know his middle name. I remember looking it up when I was a kid.

[Melz]

One thing that black history month seems to do is bring them all to the level of "proud." Even if that pride is guided by the month only, not their knowledge of what they are celebrating. Good to know that there is a bandwagon for folks to jump on to support..

something.

[DeclinetoState]

I only wish schools could actually get basic American Constitutional History accurate. They spend so much time pandering to special interests that the basics get no attention at all. Poll the average 15 year old on naming the branches of Government and it all becomes painfully clear. :-( Watch "Jay Walking" where Jay Leno interviews supposedly intelligent adults with similar (I'd say usually easier) questions to answer and you come to the same conclusion. :(

[DesertFox]

We'll get over these special months when leadership of black folks passes from the whiners to the achievers, that is, from Jesse Jackass to Ward Connerly. It'll happen quickly once it does happen. Some authoritative black voice will say, "I'm fed up with this silliness and refuse to accept it anymore." At that point, the whole rotten pc edifice will simply collapse.

[star2589]

I pretty much agree with him.

but I think he goes to far when he says: "I am going to stop calling you a white man and I'm going to ask you to stop calling me a black man."

even though people of difference races have equal value, they are still almost always different. he makes it sound as if he is trying to deny that fact.

[star2589]

Unless things have changed, children DO learn of black history, along with American history. They are congruent and are taught beginning in junior high school nowadays.

I think that depends a lot on where you are. when I was in school, the only black history I learned outside of black history month was when we studied the civil war, and the slave trade. neither topics were covered in any depth greater than what an 8 year old could understand.

the only times we covered those topics in greater depth were during black history month while we studied other topics in black history.

[nene]

There really is no difference that matters between people of different ethnicities. The fixation on our differences under the guise of 'appreciation' is part of the problem. It is pretense, an act.

[nene]

The other day, I received a "hispanic calendar" that illustrated "hispanic heroes". The bulk of these "heroes" never set foot in the United States. I promptly placed the calendar in the trash. There are various issues with this calendar that I take exception. The only one that bears mentioning is that had it been a calendar of American heroes, I'd of kept it.

I reject the "hispanic" label. I refuse to identify myself in that category. My mother was born in Spain, my father in Puerto Rico. I was born in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. I'm an American. No further information is warranted.

[DesertFox]

even though people of difference races have equal value, they are still almost always different. he makes it sound as if he is trying to deny that fact. He's saying that when we take account of race for these purposes, then race ends up being the ONLY thing we take account of. It's the nature of things. Hence we need to set it aside and start looking at each other as individuals -- which was what MLK said.

There ARE legitimate reasons to take race into account, the most pertinent of which would be simple identification. "I'll pick you up at the airport. What do you look like?" "Average height, Clark Kent glasses, dark black (light brown) (albino white) skin."

[BarkleUSA]

Let’s see, someone sat on a bus, someone thought up 10,000 things to do with a peanut… but no month designated to honor the 618,000 "whitees" that died during the Civil War so they could ride busses and play with peanuts. Go figure.

[The_Sonarman]

Belize ain't cool. It's hot.
I'm thinking retirement in Panama.

[BarkleUSA]

RE:

I'm thinking retirement in Panama.

You’ll need permission from the Chi-coms to visit the canal zone. Jimmy agreed to give it away along with our national security. Now the communist Chinese flag flies over the graves of 5,600 Americans that died digging the canal.

[DesertFox]

I'm thinking retirement in Panama. I recommend Costa Rica. Panama, though fabulous in the interior mountains, is too subject to takeover by thugs. Costa Rica actually has an American quarter, a German quarter, an Italian quarter, etc, where all the amenities of America are present and working; they even speak English; and law rules there.

After Costa Rica I would recommend the mountains of Nicaragua, a city named Esteli. That's where I'm heading, but then I speak Spanish.

[Maggie_T]

I love my country. But all of this PC liberal crap that's destroying her is making me think about leaving. Belize sounds pretty cool.

I'm thinking retirement in Panama


Warlady and Sonarman (and any other Freecer who's thinking of leaving), DON'T YOU DARE DO THAT TO ME! :eek:

I come to America and you leave?! You're going to leave me all alone with liberals?! You're going to hand the country to those miserable, cowardly, unpatriotic bastards?!

I can't believe you'd do that to your country and to your friend. It's treason, that's what it is!

Well, I won't have it, you hear me? I just won't have it! :hissyfit: :hissyfit: :hissyfit:

[Maggie_T]

And guys? Before you get too enthusiastic about Mr. Freeman, remember he was one of the typical Hollywood bleaters at the beginning of the war on Iraq. During a trip to Brazil, he spat piss and venom against Bush and the war on terrorism.

Just thought I'd share that with you.

But, yes. He's got it right on the Black History Month issue.

[EveningStar]

And guys? Before you get too enthusiastic about Mr. Freeman, remember he was one of the typical Hollywood bleaters at the beginning of the war on Iraq. During a trip to Brazil, he spat piss and venom against Bush and the war on terrorism.

Just thought I'd share that with you.

Thanks. I'd forgotten.