Deval Patrick and John Lewis [6], Boston, October 2005, at a march commemorating one led by Martin Luther King in 1965. That demonstration, a three-mile walk from Roxbury to a rall

History gets erased -- by intentional action as well as by inadvertence. Which made the reporter's question so mundane: "Do you think Black History month is really important? Hasn't it become a cliché, unnecessarily separated off from American history?"

Events flashed through my mind: Gulf Coast devastation and the continuing dislocation of thousands of people; the pseudo-"discovery" (again?) by some of folks living in poverty conditions -- yet very little mention of this as a factor in the 2006 elections; manufactured panics over so-called "illegals"; health and other disparities by race and class and more. Had the rightward movement in public life confused this young reporter, obscuring the backlash against freedom and equity for people of color?

Inherent in the reporter's question was the evidence of why Black History month is as important now as it has ever been.

The young reporter was shaped by the various ways he has experienced Black History month within his lifetime: perhaps the corporate convenience mode with its well-sanitized dream motif. Here banks, fast food corporations, hospitals, and federal agencies extol the wisdom of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Lots of erased history there, to say the least.

Then there's the "history for them" mode. A step forward, yet one mired in mystifying morality tales. The message? "Real" history is that of white America, 'onward and upward,' not the stories of many diverse populations and the experiences of those whose ancestry is African, Asian, Pacific Islander, Latino/a, Indigenous. The mode evidently least visible to this young reporter these days is the original Carter G. Woodson [7] mode: bringing forth the erased history of those of African descent in the Americas.

Yes, I replied, it is still most important to bring forth erased history. It helps correct miseducation on a version of American history that excludes so many and so much -- particularly how people acted grounded in possibilities not yet seen. Notions of the supremacy of those with white skin color, and the inferiority of those with darker skin color, are deeply embedded in the fabric of the United States, and sanitized US history. Witness the diatribe of "Kramer." As William Greider [8] has written: "Mass culture marinates American citizens in false triumphalism." White primacy rules.

In December, the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights [9] announced the winners of the Myers Outstanding Book Awards. They speak to erased history, and, importantly, of how those historical events became erased.

In this spin-deafening time of too much to read in too little time, we must move beyond superficiality. We need Black History Month, Latino/a History Month, Asian Pacific Islander Month, and Indigenous Peoples Month to challenge imperial amnesia.

Let us imagine in 2007 beyond the given, the achieved. Yes, the recent elections offer promise, but until we create the fabric for an equitable world of justice and peace, the structures and patterns of injustice will remain. In Massachusetts, many of us were part of what activist Grace Boggs [10] calls "humanity-stretching movements" in electing a new governor. Will some of us forget? Think that was all that was needed? Will some deny that white primacy remains as an instrument of power and domination? See incidents as individual aberrations, not as the pattern of power? Let's this year, and in the future, pledge to one another to embrace the fullness of the human worth and dignity of us all.

In the struggle for justice is the hope.

* In the printed version, we mistakenly listed the author's name as Loretta Myers. We regret making this error.