It seems lately that there has been a push to get parents more involved in their classroom activities. More involved parents lead to more successful students, so in that regard, good. However, should parents have the last say in what their children learn about?

That’s an emphatic no.

Do you ever wonder why there is no white history month? When I was back in my Libertarian period, where I thought equality of opportunity was the same as equality in reality, I wondered about that too. Until I finally learned enough to know how little I knew.

A quick history lesson. “Black” is not a thing. As a moniker, it attempts to group all non-Europeans together and at first, when the world was perceived to be smaller than it is, this worked. Eventually, when we came across non-Europeans who looked like Europeans but spoke different languages, the term wasn’t expanded, rather refined to mean people from Africa.

I know.

At this point, you’re probably wondering still why we have a Black History Month if it’s not a real thing. Because of what is a real thing. See, “black” doesn’t begin to qualify all of the plethora of different and unique nationalities and communities that comprise the African diaspora—not by a long shot. But it does create a convenient converse for people who wish to declare their own original nationalities extinct and thereby move up the food chain: white. Polish, German, Italian, Japanese, and other ethnic groups have all struggled to ensure that they get grouped under the “white” label as opposed to the “black” one. Why?

Because as soon as “white” began to solidify as a group, they began to oppress and push down whatever wasn’t “white”. And then, because they knew, as one would have to, that oppressing others is wrong, they then tried rewriting history (in the United States, and other nations as well). The fact is that history doesn’t die just because you want it to though, and there was a sizeable chunk of the American population that wanted history to be remembered. Who?

Well, the “black” people of course. And yet, here we are, still trying to tell the truth of our history as a nation, and still getting pushback. Which brings me to the original question: why don’t we have a white history month? Because every other month of the year is white history month, and frankly, white history month has tended so far to leave out any sign of actual black history. Hence we need a black history month, and frankly, could do with a little less white history.

As an environmental package finally has a chance at passing in the Senate through reconciliation, temperatures exceeding 100 degrees in Texas are likely to last until September. Oregon is seeing a stretch of hot days keeping San Antonion in competition, and fires burn in California. Globally, southern France and Spain are on fire as well and scorching temperatures are killing people across England. China and India are questioning why they should contribute to reducing climate change impacts if America won’t.

But American Exceptionalism, amirite?