February marks Black Heritage Month and the NIU community is gearing up to provide some entertaining and thought-provoking discussion.

As the title suggests, the month-long activities center around black culture. Although the Center for Black Studies is the primary sponsor, many groups put in some hard work to offer plenty for everyone.

And that’s the way it should be.

Working together for everyone’s benefit is the only way to help each other.

The month will provide information and thought-provoking discussion on a myriad of topics. It will provide a chance for the black community to learn more about their own history and pressing issues today.

Equally as important, it will provide a chance for non-blacks to learn more about what’s on the minds of black people.

Hopefully the shattering of some of the most basic black stereotypes will be one of the month’s high points. In the most basic sense, the month provides another chance for different races to come a little closer and understand each other a little bit better.

By no means will the celebration be a medicine pill to gently cure the ills of the great American melting pot. Neither will the month bring a smile to everyone’s face as each realizes the error of their ways and joyfully harmonizes with each other into the sunset.

To be sure, a lot of arguments are going to start. Critical thinking will be at a peak. So will doubt. These are emotions that are necessary before understanding is possible.

Most of the above might center around a couple of dates.

Like Feb. 6, when “A Perspective on Genocide of Black Men” is held in Lincoln Hall at 7:30 p.m. It has been a long-held theory in some corners of the black community that some high-ranking U.S. officials have a master plan to eradicate blacks.

Another date is Feb. 8 when Tyrone Crider from Operation PUSH comes to the Duke Ellington Ballroom at 7 p.m. Crider will give a lecture titled “The Black Economy.” Operation PUSH always stirs differing emotions, especially in Illinois.

But the two most provocative lectures might be on Feb. 12 and 21 by the sheer recognition of the speaker.

Atallah Shabazz will be the keynote speaker for the Feb. 12 Tribute to Black Men. Shabazz is the famous daughter of Malcolm X.

Attorney Alton Maddox will be in the Carl Sandburg Auditorium on Feb. 21. He is one of the lawyers that represented Tawanna Brawley. She and her lawyers maintain her gang-rape was covered-up by white government officials.

Hopefully, the above dates and following discussion will stir more than critical thinking and push the people into action.

There are a lot of wrongs being perpetrated at NIU that get public notice. And there probably are a lot more that fall on deaf ears, not to mention the wrongs never getting out at all.

But even if the month doesn’t change anyone’s thinking, it is a step in the right direction. Ignorance will continue to grow if left unchecked.

Fighting racism is everyone’s business.