Feb. 6, 2007

The lessons of history – as both a measure of cultural identity and even a weapon of dehumanization – were fertile ground for thought Tuesday as Presbyterian College’s new director of multicultural student affairs addressed the origins and legacy of Black History Month.

Dr. Rodney Cohen, who joined the college last fall, began the college’s annual Black History Month lecture with a proverb that illustrates the most essential need to record and understand human history. In it, he pointed out, a man asked an elder what became of an ancient black people.

“The old man sighed and said, ‘They lost their history, so they died,’” he said.

Cohen said the legend illustrates how history is regarded as one of the most important tools in the survival and identity of a people. He said John Henry Clark, professor emeritus of Hunter College, also called history a “clock that people use to tell them the political time of day and a compass to help find themselves on the map of human geography.”

History also tells people where they are and where they need to be, said Cohen. Unfortunately for African-Americans, their measurement of time has been interrupted by generations of certain institutions – slavery, colonialism, and the Jim Crow era – that sought to remove black accomplishment from the face of human history. In that sense, he noted, one group of people has wielded history as a weapon to revise and even eradicate the role black people have played in world events.

Cohen said he is aware that people often question the need for Black History Month and wonder if it is a divisive institution. The answer to those queries, he said, are evident in the power images play in dehumanizing people according to race or culture – which he illustrated by showing a clip of Kiri Davis’ documentary “A Girl Like Me.” Davis’ short film was a reenactment of noted African-American psychologist Dr. Kenneth Clark’s “doll test” during which African-American children are asked to choose between dolls of different race. In both the original experiment and Davis’ documentary, a majority of the children prefer the white dolls over the black dolls and relate negatively to the dolls which most resemble them physically.

“I think it’s important to note that images like this, both historically and contemporarily, have led to issues of identity and issues of confidence and also have played major roles in terms of the dynamics of racial issues,” he said.

Such was not the case in antiquity, though, said Cohen. The ancient Romans and Greeks made contact with ancient Africans – learning from them, trading with them, and viewing them as the architects of civilizations that predated their own. It was not until much later, beginning around the 15th and 16th centuries, that the historic contributions of black people were pushed aside and ignored – a system of revisionist history that continued even into 20th century America, he noted.

With films like “Birth of a Nation” and “Gone with the Wind,” and shows like “Amos and Andy,” the media manufactured and dictated to society the negative stereotypes that guided misperceptions in both white and black America. Minstrel shows and product advertisements featuring “Sambos” and “Aunt Jemima” stereotypes, said Cohen, were all part of mainstream popular culture. Unfortunately, he added, these stereotypes are still perpetuated in some corners, as evidenced by the recent rash of Greek society “theme parties” which mocked African-Americans.

Cohen said it is important to note that these images were indeed manufactured and even then were believed to be funny and not harmful. Nonetheless, he said, they have had a prevailing negative influence on the self-perception of African-Americans – then and even now. Sadly, while many of these images were widely known in the early 20th century, history failed largely to record events like the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s.

Out of that same period came the establishment of what is now Black History Month. In 1926, said Cohen, Carter G. Woodson – an historian, professor, and journalist – founded Negro History Week, which was celebrated in February. Cohen explained that February was established as the time to celebrate black history – not because it is the shortest, coldest month, as some argue, but because it is the same month Abraham Lincoln, Langston Hughes, Frederick Douglass, and the NAACP were born.

In the mid-1970s, he said, the celebration of black history evolved into a month long event that has since paved the way for celebrating other ethnicities and even gender.

Following his lecture, Cohen also fielded questions about PC’s celebration of Black History Month. He said he hopes that questions about black history will provide a springboard for continued dialogue about race on campus. He said he also hopes that Black History Month as it is currently celebrated in colleges and in public schools will become more than a series of “bullet points” and more an opportunity for people of all cultures to broaden their experiences.

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