For real, emancipate yourselves
Published:Saturday | February 19, 2011 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR, Sir:
All rational black people in Jamaica should be offended by the noise surrounding the call to celebrate Black History Month. Such a celebration is clear evidence of our mental slavery.
Noel Julius' letter to the editor published in The Gleaner of February 17, titled 'Emancipate yourselves', implies that Black History Month is celebrated all over the world. This is patently false. It is absurd to suggest that black people on the continent of Africa celebrate their history one month of every year.
Only the enslaved minds of Jamaicans would see logic in such a concept. Black History Month is an invention of the United States to appease its black population for omitting them from the pages of its history. It is a cruel attempt to ensure that African history never becomes part of the fabric of American history.
Black history in America is far more than Martin Luther King Jr and other civil-rights icons, and so is Jamaican history. Let us not be bamboozled into this yearly charade.
I am, etc.,
R. OSCAR LOFTERS
Kingston 8