The Famuan

Issue date: 2/1/08 Section: Opinions

Aside from my mother's birthday, February celebrates the history of black people.

Year after year we hear the same thing: Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream, and Harriet Tubman helped to free the slaves.

A lot of people don't realize that black people are responsible for cell phones, air conditioners and elevators. Of the small number of people informed about blacks creating these luxuries, most of them can't tell you the names of the inventors.

As students at a Historically Black College and University, we should be ashamed of ourselves. At the college level, we can't really blame anyone for our ignorance except for ourselves.

In a couple of years, we will carry the torch of the black community. If we let the flame of our people's legacy go out, all of their hard work would have been in vain.

I'm not asking for people to be walking black history encyclopedias, but could it hurt to walk to the black archives on a break between classes?

It scares me to see elementary school students who know all of the words to Lil Boosie's "Wipe Me Down" and none of Dr. King's speeches. With FAMU DRS being a part of our campus, it's crazy to me that we don't reach out to teach these children what we know about our history.

In every facet of life, black people have made major contributions to the world. If we overlook that, we can't expect other people to take notice.

Many people are at FAMU to get a degree, and that's it. But what if some of us make history in the process?

Would we have the right to be mad that nobody knows about our accomplishments?

The future generation won't care about any of the struggles that we've endured because we haven't shown them the great progress that our people have made in the past.

Everybody can find ways to recognize black history month in their own way, but it's important that we celebrate it.

Over the past few years, it seems like nobody decided to come to the month-long party thrown for our people over the past few years. We seem to think that learning historical facts about our past is boring, and it doesn't affect us.

Why can't we find ways to make it fun and get the community involved?

What's wrong with having Black History Month carnivals featuring trivia and prizes?

Everybody complains that we need to make a change, yet they sit around on their cell phones with the air conditioning on high and do nothing.

If we don't value our past, the next generation won't care about our future.

Christine Thomasos is a junior magazine production student from Long Island, N.Y. She can be reached at famuanopinions@homtail.com.