About the Writer
Abigail Gallen, Staff Writer
My name is Abigail Gallen, and I am a sophomore at North Allegheny. One of my biggest passions is politics/activism, and most of my stories are politically...
Black History Month at NAI
NAI is celebrating, honoring, and spreading awareness of Black History Month.
February 15, 2019
It’s February, which means it’s the peak of the winter season and the time to buy boxes of chocolates and bouquets of roses for your S.O. More importantly, it’s Black History Month. Here’s how you and the rest of the NAI community can celebrate Black History Month at school.
On your way to the cafeteria, you might have noticed the big bulletin board on the wall featuring Martin Luther King Jr and his famous quote: “I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear” in honor of Black History Month. You can thank the art club for that.
In the library, a display of literature and books in honor of Black History Month and black authors has been set up for the NAI community. These books are available to everyone to check out of the library, and they celebrate black culture and give recognition to well-deserving black authors and scholars.
The most prominent activity NAI is doing to celebrate is one you might have heard on the announcements; NAI is hosting its first-ever Black History Month Contest in which anyone can participate with a submission of writing, artwork, or another form of expression that portrays the impact and importance of Black History Month. The winner of this contest will get a lot of recognition; they will be recognized at next month’s school board meeting and at NAI. Submissions must be received in the main office by Thursday, February 28th.
Black History Month is a time to celebrate and give black culture the respect and acknowledgement it deserves, but also to educate the masses on things like racism and privilege, especially in history. Remember to be respectful and educated in conversation, and keep in mind all the things you can be doing to provide support.
EDITOR’S NOTE: NAEYE is interested in seeing how Black History Month continues to be celebrated at NAI. If you have pictures or stories about this, please email Mr. Hull at [email protected]
Jane D • Oct 16, 2020 at 4:49 pm
I know you said not to call you a racist bigot but that’s what you are.Black/African American people have been tortured and enslaved for years.so yes we do deserve black history month so people can know what we’ve been through because you have a whole country which is not at all fair since white people such as yourself colonized it long ago. this passage is not saying all white people are racist but most of them are.
adviser • Feb 20, 2019 at 8:44 pm
Hi Andrew: Thanks for reading and commenting. Our intent was to acknowledge heightened racial tensions in our country lately and to take the opportunity to encourage people to see things from a perspective outside of their own. As a group dedicated to journalism, we try to push our readers to think of issues from many points of view — not to necessarily pass “blame” towards any one group. We can see how readers may misinterpret that; for that reason, we’ve taken out the image so that readers can focus on the true meaning of the article.
-NAEye staff
John D. • Feb 20, 2019 at 8:39 pm
Hello! I read your newspaper regularly and am always looking for new content from you guys. I was looking to see what had been posted recently when I came across this article. Now, I am in favor of observing and learning from other cultures and think that it is important, yet I don’t think that Black History Month is very moral since it pushes a notion that black culture is either not important (its giving a month to an entire culture) or that no other cultures are important (Chinese History Month? European History Month? etc.); but, that is not the problem here. The problem is that when people promulgate the stereotype that all whites are racist and insensitive to black people (they specifically won’t read books by black authors, won’t see movies with a black main character, won’t donate to black charities, etc.) and that all whites have this “white privilege” which they are imbued with when they are born and gives them special endowments, it starts to demonize whites because of an entirely illogical notion. I do not think that racism doesn’t exist; that would be ridiculous. I simply think that today there is an extremely insignificant amount of it. I believe that nothing is stopping a black person to become very wealthy or a white person to go into poverty. I believe that almost no one in our country today would judge a person on the melanin in their skin rather than the content of their character (when people complain about racism or white privilege from statistics or circumstances, it is almost always a socio-economic factor, location-based factor, or a different cultural value that is involved), and that should apply to all races. Saying that people are in the wrong only because they are white is against all our country stands for. We should all hold these basic truths: all individuals are equal yet different, and race does not affect anything you do in this wonderful nation.
P.S. Thank you for hearing my thoughts. I believe that you will be reasonable enough to listen to my opinion and not just call me a racist bigot. Hopefully you won’t shutdown a productive dialogue. Again, thank you for listening. (And if you must know, yes, I am white. Just because of my race doesn’t mean I can’t have an opinion on different topics.)
Again, Thank You.