While standing in line at Java City in the University Union the other day, I overheard a conversation by a couple standing behind me about the subject of Black History Month. The entire conversation can be distilled down to one of the them saying, “I don?t know why there?s a Black History Month, there?s no such thing as a White History Month.”

I would like to take this time to respond to the couple by reminding them of one simple fact. There?s no such thing as White History Month because it?s all white history! OK, maybe not all of it, but certainly a large chunk. To compensate for the Euro-centric nature of American culture, we have designated February, the shortest month of the year, as a month that should remind us that there is more to history than what we learned growing up.

Most of the time, when we were reading our history textbooks, we had old, dead white men staring back at us. We read that the good guys (and they were almost always guys) won; and hard work and dedication was the way to succeed in America.

Then it seemed like the further we get along in school, the more complicated things became. We first learned that Christopher Columbus was trying to prove the world was round. Then we learned that he was trying to discover new land. Then we learned he was trying to find a passage to India but went the wrong way and ended up in the Americas. Then we learned that Columbus was a murderous scavenger who enslaved the peaceful Native Americans and tortured them into submission.

The same complicated pattern can be found in our study of African Americans. First, we learned about Martin Luther King, Jr., and that was pretty much it. We learned where King marched, what he said and what he did for civil rights. However, he was basically the only African-American related subject that schools spent any time on.

Chris Rock has a joke about this. Question: “What?s the capital of Zaire?” Answer: “Martin Luther King.” The fact that we need a Black History month speaks volumes about our propagandized history lessons designed to make us feel better about our country. We learn about the founding of this nation but essentially ignore the fact that this land was ripped away from the Native Americans. We never learn about how the Native Americans were almost wiped off the face of the planet to make way for expansion.

There is a book that deals with this issue called “Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong” by James W. Loewen. In it, Loewen explores many of the myths and half-truths that are endemic to U.S. history. For example, Helen Keller was a communist who would rather have been remembered for fighting for the working and lower classes than overcoming disabilities.

So, as we close the door on another Black History Month, remember that the point of it is to tear yourself away from the easy history that was presented to you in your youth, and take a deeper look at the history of this country and realize that it is far from simple.

The United States is made up of people of different colors?so is U.S. history.

Have anything to add? Tell Ryan Flatley at [email protected].