African-American Heritage Month, like other ideas and concepts of the past such as slavery, are outdated and should not be used or celebrated in a first world society like the United States.

These months supposedly celebrating a culture or race hinder the spread and understanding of that culture. Having an entire culture or races history relegated to a month is backwards thought process.

So many still think of these types of months as a beneficial way in which to support or celebrate a race or culture, but it does not make sense. Why is a person’s heritage given only one month?

The original inception of Negro History Week that would later be expanded to Black History Month (African-American History Month) created in order to promote the teachings and accomplishments of African-Americans is our society and history.

This has continued to be one of the many reasons people have supported these types of months. This argument has little weight though. Instead of having just one month to cram information about a person’s history, we should just be incorporating those celebrated in these months into the regular curriculum.

From the mere inception of this month, one could assume African-American history is different from U.S. history, which everyone is taught well into high school.

African-American history is U.S. history. There is no reason their history should be separated from U.S. history. African-Americans along with the several other races and ethnicities that have built this country should appear and be an integral part in what is taught in regular history classes instead of stifling them separately to a month.

This can also be said for such months as Women’s History Month, Hispanic-American Heritage Month, and Asian-American Heritage Month. These months are hindering the education of successful people of a certain race, gender or ethnicity.

Given a month, there is less pressure to teach children about the accomplishments made by certain social groups in the U.S. Each one, in a sense, is given table scraps. Even if these months solely exist to celebrate each individual ethnicity, gender or race, it still would not make sense.

The existence of these months has a glaring issue. Not every social group is represented in a month. The most notable groups would include White or European-Americans, and men.

Of course, history on both of these groups is discussed at length in history textbooks, but if there are to be months for each specific group, why is there not one for these groups?

Also, does this mean groups like these get the rest of the year? Is there such a thing as Caucasian-American History Months.

Why do certain races get more months or do not get more months? These questions alone tear apart any sense for the existence of these months.

Instead of giving them a month, those African-Americans who achieved so much in the U.S., along with those apart of every other race, ethnicity or gender should be represented in our textbooks and society on the day-to-day.

Summing up one person’s past into a month is insulting and backwards.

The daily editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial board of The Daily Eastern News.