Black History Month: Celebration or miseducation?

By Curtis Scoon

Editor’s note: The opinions expressed here are those of the authors. View more opinion on ScoonTV. 

“History is a set of lies agreed upon.” – Napoleon Bonaparte 

It’s February and that means it’s time for “black history month.” The first official black history month was at Kent State in 1970. The reverberations of the civil rights era could still be felt on America’s college campuses after the turbulent 60’s. The black community had taken center stage with the movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others. 

Dr. King’s death in 1968 was in many ways the climax of that racially explosive era. The morale of the black community was at its lowest in the wake of his assassination. Subsequent rioting saw many urban areas burn. Soul singer James Brown released, “Say it Loud! I’m Black and I’m Proud!” mere months after King’s demise. The song personified the demand for respect that united black people. It encapsulated the spirit of the times. 

When discussing black history in America, the focus will either be slavery and the fight for emancipation or the struggle for integration and equal rights. Our very identity seemingly has been derived from struggle and injustice – often framed as a testimony of our collective strength and resilience. 

I know of no other people whose history consists primarily of their experience with tragedy and exploitation rather than conquests and success. Under this approach to history, there can be no black history without white antagonists. 

Some argue this is by design to constantly remind white people of a moral and financial debt owed to their fellow Americans. However, this strategy has not worked and will not work because it requires the very people blamed for our woes to fix them. There’s a constant gathering of evidence of how cruel and unjust whites were to us in hopes of some eventual reparations. That’s a tough sell to people who were not alive when most of these atrocities took place. 

Also, the argument we’re all doomed to poverty without mass government compensation requires ignoring examples of black success outside of sports and entertainment or politics. 

Men like Baltimore’s Reginald Lewis, known for buying Beatrice International Foods in 1987 for $985 million, are swept under the “grievance rug” of our “history.” Independent black success contradicts the struggle narrative most historical black icons became renowned for fighting against. 

Instead of Lewis, we celebrate the life of men like George Floyd, whose death had a greater impact on the world than that of Dr. King. At least, that’s according to our current commander-in-chief and leader of the free world, Joe Biden. 

Since his death, statues of George Floyd have been erected around the country. I can assure you that just like the Martin Luther King Jr. monument in DC, made in China by a Chinese sculptor, no black sculptors were commissioned to make any of the Floyd sculptures. Black history is a cash cow for a select few. 

After all the marching and political grandstanding, this is the shameful destination we’ve come to. A place where our heroes must be victims and there are no solutions for black people that doesn’t require white or government involvement of some sort – a “revolution” funded by grant money, think tanks, and corporate sponsors. Simply put, a money grab. 

However, with money comes “strings.” What that means is the agendas of the numerous non-profit activist organizations and elected officials are set by the funding sources. This is how an organization like Black Lives Matter gets its start protesting the extrajudicial killings of black men and morphs into an LGBTQ advocacy group attacking the nuclear family and promoting “queer affirming.” 

This is also how black Congresswoman Cori Bush came to refer to mothers as “birthing people” since men can now also have babies according to progressives. They all propagate whatever will get them paid in the name of blackness. None of this is new.  

Other than Elijah Muhammad’s Nation of Islam and Marcus Garvey’s UNIA (Universal Negro Improvement Association) movement, I can’t think of a popular black movement that wasn’t funded and influenced to varying degrees by institutions and people outside the community. 

Even Huey Newton, the vaunted Black Panther Party leader, was not immune from such influences. In 2012, investigative journalist Kate Coleman reported that Newton was allegedly involved in a ‘gay for pay’ relationship with millionaire Hollywood producer, Bert Schneider. Schneider also smuggled Newton to Cuba on his boat so he could avoid prosecution for several serious crimes in Oakland. 

In hindsight, the gay allegation seems quite plausible given Newton’s early support of Women’s Liberation and Gay Rights in 1970 – long before those issues became indistinguishable from organic black issues while simultaneously eclipsing them. 

A Marxist Black Nationalist openly championing gender and sexuality issues. The more things change the more they remain the same. 

The Smithsonian African American Museum in Washington DC is a tribute to black historical figures and events in North America. Like most things pertaining to black people globally, a mainstream tribute can only mean the celebrated figures and events have met the approval of some faction of the white power elite. Such approval is contingent upon the usefulness to whichever ideology they promote. 

That being the case, “blackness” has now become a matter of political ideology rather than one purely of race. Blacks like Marcus Garvey or Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas barely get acknowledged in the museum while celebrities such as Serena Williams and LeBron James are featured prominently. Garvey espoused economic empowerment as a means of self-determination, and Thomas is a conservative who has opposed affirmative action. 

The politics of both bring their “blackness” into question with a black collective that has had its identity redefined throughout the years by unscrupulous leadership and nefarious “allies.” So despised by liberals is Thomas for his conservative ideology that efforts to erect a monument in his honor in his home state of Georgia are being met with resistance from black politicians. Apparently, when it comes to race, politics is the superseding factor. 

The civil rights movement has long been accused of having strong communist ties. The FBI recruitment of Thurgood Marshall, the first black Supreme Court Justice, as an informant while working for the NAACP appears to confirm this. According to Marshall, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover was convinced he [Marshall] was responsible for “routing the commies out of the NAACP.” Hoover was so grateful that he supported Marshall’s rising legal career. 

Another similar case is that of Bayard Rustin, MLK advisor and organizer of the 1963 March on Washington. Rustin was apparently a CIA asset. Rustin’s work for the Agency in the Dominican Republic and Africa pertained to influencing, or some might say undermining, the political process in those regions. 

In 1984, an internationally well-connected Rustin was called as a character witness for Ariel Sharon in his “Blood Libel” lawsuit against Time Magazine. Sharon was the former Israeli Defense Minister at the time. In 2001, Sharon became Israeli prime minister.  

Rustin was certainly not the first or only intelligence asset in the civil rights movement. One of the NAACP’s first Jewish leaders, Joel Spingarn, was also a former intelligence officer for the Military Intelligence Division. The MID preceded the CIA. Spingarn became the NAACP’s second president in 1930 but had previously been its chairman of the board since 1913. To this day, the highest honor the NAACP can bestow is the “Spingarn Medal.” The NAACP is also the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization. 

It might be difficult for some to fathom the civil rights movement could’ve been infiltrated or actually started by government agents. A Trojan Horse if you will. However, the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. The aftermath of the civil rights era tells a story of its own. 

After integration, there was widespread demotion or forced resignation of tens of thousands of experienced, highly credentialed black teachers and principals who staffed the black-only schools. This wasn’t limited solely to education, but the entire black financial ecosystem. In exchange for our economy, we were given token representation, affirmative action, and quotas. We essentially traded ownership for a seat at the table. 

In 1954, the collective black buying power was estimated at $15 billion annually. That number is now a reported $1.6 trillion largely due to abundant credit. 

In post-civil rights America, we have no shortage of activists and pontificators for hire. In fact, they outnumber essential professionals like scientists, doctors, engineers, etc. The role of these activist leaders is twofold:  

1. They link every societal controversy to racism, white supremacy or capitalism. 
2. They promote the idea that politics can resolve all social woes and injustices. 

As a result, politics has become our religion and the state has become like God. Unfortunately, there are no political solutions for cultural deficiencies. The decline of the black community began with the decline of the black family. 

In 1960, the marriage rate for blacks was 61%. Today it’s 30%. Consequently, 70% black children are born out of wedlock. In New York City thousands more black babies are aborted than born alive.  

Moreover, the incarceration and murder rates of black men only compound matters. Meanwhile, organizations like Black Lives Matter vilify the nuclear family and focus on the concerns of the LGBTQ community that keeps them well funded. For the proverbial 30 pieces of silver, today’s leaders will promote anything in the “best interest” of black people. BLM is so well funded that their current leadership is being investigated for grift and graft to the tune of millions. 

The most puzzling thing is that the vast majority of black activists today champion gender and sexuality while referencing the struggles of the civil rights movement that had little to do with either. They’re all over social media with “pronouns” in their bio. Some like Marc Lamont Hill can be found on TV promoting gestation in men. 

Not long before his assassination Dr. King was quoted as saying, “I fear I am integrating my people into a burning house.” For now, the “arsonists” are winning.