Repost: https://equalmindset.com/articles/a-call-for-acknowledgement (February 2018)
Among the other festivities occurring in February, Black History Month is a celebration to honour Black Americans for the successes and accomplishments they have contributed to American history. It was first known as Black History Week which was created by the historian Carter G. Woodsen in 1926. The week became a month of celebration and was officially recognized in 1976 by American President Gerald Ford. Following in America’s footsteps, Canada recognized February as Black History Month in December 1995. The idea was proposed by Jean Augustine, who was the first black Canadian woman elected to Parliament.
From this explanation of Black History Month, it can be interpreted as a direct way for the world to recognize the hardships and triumphs of the Black community such as Anne Cools who was the first black Canadian woman to become a senator in 1984 and Rosa Parks whose refusal to leave her bus seat sparked the American Civil Rights movement.
The keyword for this celebration is: recognition.
Being acknowledged for your actions that lead to positive change allows you to become accepted by the people around you. Recognition allows a person to be treated by others as an individual of equal value.
But if recognition and acknowledgment mean acceptance and tolerance for others, then does it also mean respect?
From my perspective as a second-generation Chinese female living in the Western world, I think that stereotypes about Chinese people and my physical appearance definitely affect the perceptions of everyone around me. There are expectations and presumptions thrown around about my identity, some true and some not. But at my core, I’m still human. Tolerance and acceptance are things that I don’t consciously work for, but are granted when I do my work well. Respect is something that I give and expect in return.
As a minority, I feel that some cultures do get by a bit easier than others.
Today, indigenous people are giving their testimonies on how they’ve been treated by public institutions including the police, Quebec’s youth protection agency and the justice system. The inquiry came about because of allegations about cases of discrimination and mistreatment toward Indigenous people living in northwestern Quebec.
It has taken a period of fifty years for Black History Month to be officially recognized in the United States and nineteen years later for Canada to adopt this celebratory event. Canada closed the doors to the last residential school in 1996 and had only adopted the United Nations’ Declaration for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples two years ago when the document was created in 2007.
If recognition is defined as knowing that your existence means something to others, then recognition is difficult to achieve as it is a long process to gain respect as a minority group.
I think the inquiry is a great step in the right direction.
But what more can we do so that #WeAreEqual is a true reality for everyone?