Please critique my ltte re: Black History month-I had trouble with some wording

[w8liftinglady]

feel free to edit as you see fit.

I overheard 2 people talking in the little cafe I go to."What the heck do we need a Black History Month for,anyway?I mean,we don't have a white history month"How soon we forget.As a veteran's activist,I've chosen to focus on the military service of African Americans in the United States until 1900,often times before they considered "free" or allowed to vote..

-March 1770 Crispus Attucks, a runaway slave turned Jacktar, and four other colonists were killed during the Boston Massacre.
-April 1775 Black patriots took part in the Battle of Lexington and Concord.
-June 1775 Several black soldiers (most notably Peter Salem and Salem Poor) fought in the Battle of Bunker Hill.
-December 1775 The Massachusetts Bay General Court officially commended Salem Poor for his service as "a brave and gallant soldier."
-September 1783 American and British representatives signed the Treaty of Paris, recognizing American independence and ending the American Revolution. Almost 10,000 blacks served during the war, 5000 of whom were regular soldiers in the Continental Army.
-1862 Harriet Tubman, probably the most well known "conductor" on the Underground Railroad, served as a nurse, cook, and laundress to Union troops in South Carolina. She also supported the Union cause as a spy, scout, and guerrilla leader.
-October 1862 The first use of black troops in combat during the Civil War involved a 225-man detachment from the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry.
-December 1862 Confederate President Jefferson Davis "raised the black flag" against the North by signing a proclamation ordering the execution of any white Union officers of black troops.
-July 1863 Sergeant William H. Carney’s bravery under fire during the assault on Fort Wagner earned him the Congressional Medal of Honor.
-July 1866 Radical Republicans in Congress pushed through legislation allowing blacks to serve in the armed forces during peacetime.
-June 1877 Henry O. Flipper, born into slavery in Georgia, became the first African American to graduate from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point
-1898 Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., began his 50-year military career as a lieutenant in the District of Columbia National Guard.
-April 1909 Admiral Robert E. Peary, African-American Matthew Henson, and a party of four Eskimos were the first to reach the North Pole. In preparation for the expedition, Henson learned to speak Inuit and studied their culture.

It should be noted that many,if not all of these Patriots existed in some form of slavery at some point in their lives.And yet,they were willing to lay their lives down for their country.We owe these Americans a particular debt of gratitude for their service to our country.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

1. the language of the Eskimo is Innuit

I think

[Igel]

5. In part.

Eskimos speak a number of languages. One problem is classifying them: Inuit seems to be a cover term, with Inuktitut being a fairly common term in Canada and being a distinct language variety. Yup'ik in the US is related, but Inupiatun (etc.) is more closely related. Think of it as a continuum of dialects with gaps--you start at one end and start walking, and the changes build up only gradually until they're pretty much mutually unintelligible, and you get to decide where the language boundary is. It's either arbitrary or social (sort of like the Czech/Slovak boundary, but even fuzzier).

I've heard that many American Eskimos reject being called Inuktitut or even Inuit, but Inuit is nonetheless the standard term in Canada and a lot of Americans have decided that's what American Yup'ik want to be called--and extend it to the Aleuts, for which it can't properly be used. "Eskimo" in Canada, as far as I can tell, is rejected as both obsolete and offensive.

Peary's Eskimos were Inuit, probably Inuktitut (but that's a guess on my part based on where he was).

A map is useful. I'll link to the American map; there's probably one or more Canadian maps at ethnologue.com as well.

http://www.ethnologue.com/show_map.asp?name=US&seq=20

[grantcart]

2. I think the point about Black History Month is that its not to help Blacks experience

some profile for one month of the year but for non Blacks to learn about that part of America that they also own.


Douglas/King/Malcolm/Evers et al are not 'their' leaders but all of our leaders. All of the people you list are part of our tradition and its an opportunity for all of us to learn more about 'our' ancestors, some of whom have been swept under the rug.

[w8liftinglady]

3. that's the point I was trying to get across

A tremendous contribution to the birth of our nation,despite the prejudices against them.

[unkachuck]

4. K&R...if we don't tell people....

....the truth about our US history, then others will distort US history for us....great job, w8liftinglady....