Take Time for Black History

February is Black History Month, which, given the times, still receives an unduly lesser amount of attention from the media and probably from us all. The occasion — the consideration of achievements, events and times in black history — is sometimes treated with diffidence and coolness by black and white people alike, perhaps because it seems a sort of set-aside, something out of the stream of history, time and even forgetfulness.

It’s perfectly true that elements of black history — those events that might remain otherwise unnoticed, such as the heroics of black fighter pilots in World War II, the exploits of players from the Negro Leagues, or the critical role of black women in the civil rights movement — are worth considering specifically, and probably for entirely different reasons in each case. (In Washington, there is an especially rich African American history, known well by black and white alike.)

We suspect the problem that some people have with black history is that there are circles and lines around it, including Keep Out signs. That particular history, some of it hidden, seems to be about black history in the context of the generic history, but however you might pursue its study, it’s also the history of all of us.

Politics, culture and society often try to separate people from one another, to urge a kind of unhealthy self-interest, at the expense of others. Somewhere in our travels, or early in life and at its last, we realize that however deprived or however entitled we might be, our history begins and ends the same way — in the womb and on a deathbed — and in this way, however separated, we are never truly apart. Surely, “I have a dream” — its urgency speaks to everyone, not just one people.

Celebrating black history is important — without it, no one can truly celebrate their own lives or understand it fully. The best way to study history is at the places where all lives intersect. History is everyone’s lives moving forward, not necessarily in tandem. Just this past week, sports junkies were studying the style of a single black athlete and his clothes — and arguing about it. In these days too, the slogan on a T-shirt that “Black Lives Matter” still resonates and does not require the counter, that “All Lives Matter.”

In the meantime, save the date for the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture on Sept. 24 — with America’s first black president front and center.