Author James Baldwin made a modest proposal in a 1986 National Press Club speech after a series of questions from white audience members.
That proposal was the creation of a white history week.
Baldwin stated in his proposal: “I was not joking about White History Week … I’m serious about that. White Americans really do not know their history, and that’s one of the reasons they’re in trouble. And when I suggest White History Week, I’m not making a parody of Black History Week, but I’m suggesting that the truth about this country is buried in the myths that white people have about themselves. These myths have to be excavated and only can be excavated by white people.”
What if one week a year, white Americans were reminded of their history, and forge new paths to ending white supremacy? People of color are not responsible for dismantling systems that white supremacy has created, it’s the task of white people to research, educate, find, encounter, and deconstruct. These tasks all start at personal, local, and concentric levels in the sphere of white Americans.
People of color don’t need or want white guilt or tears.
That’s why we are proposing a week in March as a white history week based on James Baldwin’s words.
blackwithgod.com 