This letter is a response to the Feb. 23 editorial titled, “The fear of Black History Month” that appeared in The Times and Democrat, written by Keith Pounds.

Pounds describes himself as a mixture of English and Choctaw Indian. In his first paragraph, he states that “a growing number of Americans have become disheartened with Black History Month and other government-mandated ethnic observances.” I have not witnessed any government-mandated racial or ethnic observances. I don’t know what we would call St. Patrick’s Day.

Black Americans whose ancestors came over on slave ships lost their African history and culture as a people. No other people in the United States were forced to leave their home land and be divested of their language and culture. And we are still discriminated against by the majority culture. For hundreds of years (since 1619), African-Americans were not allowed to study their history.

In the second paragraph, Pounds compares the “Negro Leagues” and “Black Athletes” with Black History Month. He says the Black History Month celebration should disappear like those black leagues. This is like comparing apples with tennis balls.

In the next paragraph, Pounds says black politicians and their liberal supporters want special “black districts.” This is another illogical statement because (a.) it has nothing to do with the title of the editorial, and (b.) the art of gerrymandering to maintain predominant white voting districts has been going on since the passage of the 15th Amendment to the Constitution. Those illogical comments by Pounds are a major reason why black people should study and celebrate their history. Otherwise, people like Pounds will be writing it for us and telling us what we should know and celebrate.

− Marcus Jones, Orangeburg

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