We need to understand that Black History Month is not just about Black history. It is about American History within the context of African-American contributions to the U.S. population.

Being from Haiti, I have experienced plenty of injustices in the form of ignorance, from often well meaning people, to the detriment of my true identity.

When individuals make inquiries about Haiti, it is often tinted with gross negativity and a complacent undercurrent of superiority. The worse they try to make me feel about myself, the better they feel about themselves. They never ask about the lush colorful beauty of the countryside or about the fact that Haiti was the first Black republic

They often assume that I grew up terribly impoverished, under-educated and un-sophisticated.

I grew up as part of the middle class in Haiti. My mother and her four sisters lived in an inherited house left for them by my grandparents. My mother was a pampered housewife, who spent her time throwing parties for friends who were professionals or in high level government positions, most of whom she grew up with. My father was a property owner, avid businessman and entrepreneur who divided his time between living in the U.S. and in Haiti for business purposes. He paid for me to go to a prestigious private school near the Haitian palace called Frere Andre (Brother Andre in English). He paid for a private physician and a maid as part of our care. We lived on Jean-Claude Duvalier Avenue in Carfou, a city near Port-au-Prince.

Although some sections of the city where I lived were poverty stricken, I myself did not experience poverty. However, when our economic situation began to plummet, my father attained a five-year-visa for me to come to the U.S. as a tourist in 1984. Although he continued to travel back and forth between the two countries, my mother and I remained on U.S. grounds. I’ve never been back to Haiti since due to the ensuing violence and general unruliness in the country.

When I came to the U.S., I suffered from a deep sense of inferiority because I had to leave everything behind and start over again. People assumed that I was just a poor black kid from the ghetto, not even bothering to ask about my actual economic and cultural background. In my mind, I was still middle class, but in their eyes I was lower than a snake’s belly.

I sought out some local community leaders and activists on the issue of why we need Black History Month (BHM).

Dr. Carolyn L. Turk, an African-American who is Deputy Superintendent of Cambridge Public Schools: "We have moved from celebrating negro history week to celebrating Black History Month…these celebrations are…needed and should continue, but I am also a strong advocate for the contributions of African Americans to be recognized…throughout the year, across content areas and to be inclusive of local community history.

Knowledge of our past helps connect us to our present and provides hope …for the future…if we are to continue to build on the [legacies of those who came before us].

Bob Doolittle, a Caucasian youth pastor living in Cambridge: "Black History Month can and should take Martin Luther King day and make it thirty days of celebrating how the right kind of force leaves a legacy of increasing enjoyment of one another by those who are different."

Lynette Laveau Saxe is a Trinidadian dramatist who wrote and produced Moments of Courage in American History: The Underground Railroad at the First Baptist Church in Cambridge. She reflected that "Black History Month is a time when all Americans are given the opportunity to examine, pause and reflect on the very reason that the month of Black history was established. The history of America. If it happened in America then it is American history, regardless of the races involved. Many times over we hear the well-worn adage accept differences. Black History Month is a most appropriate time to ask oneself Am I tolerating or truly accepting the difference in others?"

Shani Fletcher is bi-racial and works with Teen Voices Magazine. "Black History Month is an opportunity for everyone to celebrate the African-American experience and the role of Black people in the history of the United States… Quite literally, Black people built this country, and our communities’ contributions are a major part of its culture."

We need to bridge the interpersonal and inter-racial gap in a highly mechanized society. Jeremy Smith, of Cambridge Welcoming Ministries at College Avenue Methodist in Somerville protested the BU Bioterror Lab planned for a predominantly Black Boston neighborhood by holding up a sign that said "TAKE OFF YOUR HEAD PHONES AND CARE!!!" Although he received some disapproving looks, there were others who did take off their headphones to talk to him. In essense, it is possible to re-connect with one another, even if it means doing something as simple as taking off our head phones. And as historian E.P. Thompson says, replace theorizing with doing! As for current race relations in the U.S., we have made some progress, but we still have a lot of work to do.

Black History Month is a time for doing! Once we learn to respect and appreciate our differences and begin to reflect on the importance of all our contributions to the U.S. population across all racial and cultural spectrums, our America will more likely begin to navigate an undercurrent of peace and harmony than continue to brim with disharmonious racial and cultural pandemonium!