I did an interview with Morgan Freeman once. It happened to be in February. He was adamantly against Black History Month because it marginalized and codified "blacks" as a class in need of special attention.

(note: it was NOT this interview

In effect, his argument was against affirmative action, really, which is a whole 'nuther can of worms. I'm not sure I agree, though.

Possibly the best magazine I get is Saudi Aramco World. It's largely geared towards culture and education and exposure of the awesomeness that is the Muslim world, from Amman to Zanzibar. In it, you regularly hear all the elements of modern Western culture that are most decidedly Arab or Muslim in origin... which means, if they came from North Africa, are "black."

And that, to me, is where "Black History month" goes totally wrong. In order for something to qualify as "black history" it has to include those sects of Africans who were in a position to be enslaved by White merchants and hauled across oceans. It must then focus on the achievements of these marginalized people against overwhelmingly-long odds. It must further emphasize the impacts these achievements had purely on American culture. In effect, Black History Month is like a talent show for accident victims - "look! They can still jump rope even though both their legs are broken!"

I think it's done this way because if you focus on "black" history month without the handicaps, what you see is an advanced culture that has little to do with ours. You see that pretty much every text that led to the Renaissance was preserved by Islamic scholars who sat out the Dark Ages. You see that Europe didn't spread the enlightenment everywhere they went, they were just another invading force. You learn that Ibn Battuta was an order of magnitude more relavant to the world than Marco Polo and you've never even heard his name.

The problem with Black History Month is that it's fettered and crippled to fit the USA USA Rah Rah Rah narrative of how the world works and as soon as you start emphasizing "black" achievement outside that frame of reference you start questioning every other month.