Unless you're living in a cave somewhere, you probably know that February is Black History Month. But that's not all I want to talk about. March will be Women's History Month. May will be Asian History Month.

        I've been pondering the fact that I am, in fact, a Caucasian male heterosexual Protestant of Western European descent between the ages of 18 and 35. If I were to suggest a month (or a cable network or a club) based on any of these factors, I'd be condemned as whichever "ist" was applicable (racist, sexist, etc.).

        As a history student, I'll be the first to admit that a lot of our history has a Western European slant to it. That's why the tongue-in-cheek explanation of Black History Month is that "every other month is White History Month".

        Unfortunately, that does ring too true for several, and the idea of "Let's give the Blacks their little mention now, and then go back to White history" is the height of racism. If I were Black, and that were to be the case, I wouldn't even want to bother with it.

        As someone who is aiming to enter the profession of history, I certainly would want my teaching to be as balanced and fair as possible, no matter what time of the year it is.

        I've often wondered if God knew what He was doing when he decided to make different skin colors. Biologically speaking, the only difference between different skin colors is the presence of melanin, which gave darker skin to those closes to the equator and vice cersa. But given all the violence and suffering which has resulted from differing skin colors, couldn't God have come up with a better way to give people this protection that wouldn't result in such an obvious physical difference?

        Then I realized that people are to blame here, not God. Even if God had given everyone the same skin color, humanity's driving need to point to someone and say "I'm better than you" would result in the same kind of hate and fear happening based on some other equally irrelevant feature.

        That leads me to the point of what I believe Black (or whatever) History Month should be about, regardless of what race you are. Not just a token acknowledgment and mention, but a chance to look at all the ugliness that has, and still does take place between the various races, genders and whatever else and see it for what it really is.

        This is also a chance to apologize for that ugliness, for whatever that's worth; and to do whatever possible to insure that that hate and fear isn't part of your life.