Diego Rivera celebrates Black History Month 2019

_{By Jonathan C.}

Diego Rivera administrators organized a number of events to celebrate Black History Month such as having guest speakers in the MPR, and hanging black history posters in the hallways. They also gave the students the option to wear certain colors on a specific day all throughout the month. 

They brought in Professor Claybrook from Cal State Long Beach. He talked to us about Los Angeles back in the day, riots that occured, and the treatment of black people in the past. 

They also invited a teacher from PACS, Ms. Dixon, to speak about the meaning of the n-word. She talked about the origin of the word and how she feels about people saying it around her. 

“The word was something that was said all throughout my home but when I heard someone who’s not black say it, it angered me,” said Ms. Dixon 

“If you’re not black it’s just something you don’t say,” she added. 

When asked about his participation in Black History Month, student Nathan B, grade 12, said, “I actually stopped getting involved with black history month a while ago after watching a short film featuring Morgan Freeman…He gave his opinion on black history month and it sort of persuaded me in some type of way.” 

Although Nathan doesn’t celebrate Black History Month, he still believes that it’s all about looking back and remembering the accomplishments of black historical figures. 

He believes that black history month affects our generation because many people nowadays take shortcuts and if you look back you’ll realize that not many black historical figures took shortcuts. 

“I feel like black history is everybody’s history,” says Ms.Fordham.

She feels like everyone should be educated on black history because it can relate to everybody’s culture and it is similar to many other cultures. 

“All history is intertwined,” Fordham adds.

Black History Month is an annual celebration made to remember black historical figures and civil rights leaders. We use this month to look back at the accomplishments of people such as Dr. Martín Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, Frederick Douglas, Rosa Parks, etc. 

No matter our race we should all appreciate the things black historians of the past accomplished to get us where we are now.