Page Four
COMMENTARY
THE OMAHA STAR
February 10, 2023
Black History Month By Preston Love Jr.
At this juncture, in it’s life, I pause to give the history of Black History Month. In 1926, scholar, Carter G. Woodson, with others, developed the idea, and implemented it, that Black History should be celebrated. And he is given the credit for having created Black History Week, in that year, as the acceptance, growth and credibility of Black History Week, which, by the way, was met with strong opposition from many white racists, circa Jim Crow. Black History Week evolved and grew, and in 1976, Carter Woodson and many others, established the official Black History Month. It should be noted that it was 50 years in it’s maturity. Along the way, there have always been those brave and innovative, primarily African American educators, both in the North and South, who always taught their students Black History, and should be commended for doing so. Another 50 year anniversary will occur, in 2026. So it should be noted that we approach the final years of this cycle, Black History Month has always been fueled by the fluidity of Black History. For example, Black History Month, in 1980, celebrated Black History for the life of Black History through 1980. Now we celebrate Black History Month in 2023. Black History has not been static, it has been fluid, and augmented exponentially, with new and exciting Black History, decade after decade. So we find ourselves preparing and celebrating Black History Month once more from the vantage point of 2023. The history of Blacks, in this country, began problematically, in 1619, when the first boat arrived in Virginia, the first of millions to come, carrying Black people turned into slaves. The history of slavery continued
for “woe” so many years, followed by emancipation and amendments to the Constitution, a period of great reconstruction for America and the flourishing of the history and culture of African Americans, followed by strong pushbacks in the form of Jim Crow. But the push-back was met by a growing resistance and finally the Civil Rights Movement, as we know it, and then a plethora of eliminations of our Blacks and our leadership, including the thousands of named and unnamed, lynching’s of Black men, women and children; by incarcerations, by assassinations, by bullet, including many of our leaders, including Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and even Martin Luther King. Let us not forget the transformative lynching, in 1955, of Emmett Till, in Mississippi. We don’t celebrate that part of our history, but we surely will never forget it. We surely recognize it as a part of our very complex Black History. But we do celebrate the achievements, and contributions, of Blacks in the growth and building of America, economically (through forced free labor), socially, culturally and with our lives during war times. We celebrate, inspite of it all. African American, were not allowed to learn to read and to be recognized even as a human being, not chattel. Yet we celebrate from that beginning, the pursuits by many Black intellectuals, scholars, professionals, and more. Our Black history celebrates the first African American Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall, the intellectual pursuits of W.E.B. Dubois, the scientific pursuits of Dr. Charles Drew, the literary exploits of Langston Hughes and Lorraine Hansbury, the poetic pursuits by Maya Angelou, the humanitarian pursuits of Martin Luther King, and, may I say, to this date, there is a rich, full-bodied and complex history of African Americans, and their impact on the
state of Nebraska, before, during and after its statehood, which is soon to be chronicled in an African American in Nebraska Manuscript, that I jointly written on behalf of the Truth and Reconciliation Project out of Lincoln, soon to be published. In 2023, I must remind everyone that celebrating Black History Month for the wrong reasons, is analogous to celebrating Christmas without acknowledging Jesus Christ. The audacity of Florida. Their recent rejection of an Advanced Program (AP) for high school kids to learn Black History, led by its Governor DeSantis. But what about Nebraska? The nonsensical and boogey-man strategy to activate extremism and hatred, is now using Critical Race Theory (CRT) as a rallying point, against Black History. Our former Governor called for Nebraska to replace several education positions with a single office reporting to the governor and his rejection of the UNL’s Chancellor’s call for increased DEI. I challenge all of those who share those positions, not to sit in the front row of a Black History event, as if to affirm support for Black History Month, while attempts are made to dismantle the teaching of Black History under the guise of saving “our” children. I close with a challenge, to all the readers, to consider, that going forward, we treat Black History as something that is fluid, is being created every day. By increasing our knowledge of history, we increase our understand of the world we live in. I pray, that none of us become impediments of the growth of wonderful Black History currently attempting to be made. Let us not allow disparities in healthcare, the educational gaps, an unfair criminal justice system and a lack of economic growth, to become our way of parallelizing the growth of Blacks. and therefore, their history. Celebrate Black History by celebrating blacks’ efforts to make history, today. •
What is ‘good’ tax policy? By Loretta Fairchild, Ph.D. economist raised in the panhandle Could it be raising the revenues needed, in the fairest possible ways, while doing the least harm? What is the fairest way to levy taxes? Using a base that is centered on the ability-to pay. What is wrong with the current property tax system? The value of any piece of property rarely matches the yearly income-stream of the person who owns it. It is true that Nebraska as a whole will benefit greatly by shifting out of the current property tax. What is the best, least harmful way, to do that? Use other taxes to generate the same revenue. This means using the income tax, and could include a new broad-based wealth tax. Is a ‘flat tax’ for taxing income ‘fair’? No. It is a red-herring-label for helping those of us with the highest incomes among Nebraska taxpayers [including me] to pay a lot less.
Fairness would mean something like zero % income taxes up to $35,000, 2 % between 35,000 and 75,000; and raising the rates on those with income above $100,000 enough to generate the rest of the revenue needed. [It wouldn’t hurt us a bit. : ) ] Nebraskans have a long heritage of using common-sense and facing tough problems squarely. Where do we look for facts to improve our income tax system? Opensky Policy Institutes’s nonpartisan reports should be used to evaluate the flat tax because they are entirely fact-based. Fun labels don’t change these grim realities. Please join me in urging our Senators to focus on realistic cooperation in fairly raising the revenues Nebraska will need in the next two years. •
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