As February drew to a close, public school teachers across the country pulled the staples out of the laminated face of Martin Luther King Jr. that had hung on their bulletin board for Black History Month. As they shoved him into storage for another year, I can only imagine that King was rolling over in his grave.Our society has treated Black History Month, and other history months in general, with such superficiality that its original goals have been twisted and skewed beyond recognition.

History months were originally designed as a time to commemorate and celebrate the struggles and histories of a specific group. However, our society’s shallow treatment of the historical significance that’s meant to be emphasized, both in educational and social settings, has done quite the opposite.

In most secondary schools, celebrating Black History Month involves teachers dedicating a small amount of time to teach about Martin Luther King Jr. or Rosa Parks – figures whose stories have been told and retold to students since the second grade.

King and Parks are incredibly important figures in black history, but the average education system provides students with quite a limited perspective on black history when they only teach about these two figures. This lack of depth is a major problem with how history months are celebrated, and it leads to young people viewing various minority groups and social movements through a very limited lens.

When people fail to recognize the significance and complexity of a minority group’s history, this inevitably reinforces divisions and tensions. This kind of approach leads to alienation. Rather than celebrating difference, it stigmatizes it.

This past February, I heard a number of ignorant statements about black history month. One came from a white man who was complaining about the fact that there’s a month dedicated to celebrating the African-American race but not one for his race.

“Where’s White History Month?” he griped.

What this man failed to understand is that Black History Month isn’t about celebrating a race. It’s about celebrating the history of struggles and obstacles that African-Americans have overcome. It’s about celebrating victories and triumphs in the face of oppression.

Sometimes, even people from within a celebrated minority group fail to grasp this concept. Some people have turned Black History Month into an oversimplified celebration of their race. Instead of taking the opportunity to reflect on the complexity and richness of their history, they instead emphasize ideas that reinforce alienation and confrontation with other races.

And, unfortunately, this mistreatment of history is not limited to Black History Month. Women’s History Month, while less prominently celebrated, is often similarly misunderstood and undermined. The same goes for Hispanic and Native American Heritage Months.

We, as a society, need to make ourselves more aware of the original purpose of celebrating history months. This change needs to happen on several levels. The public education system should be held responsible for giving students a more complete understanding of the histories of different minority groups throughout the entire year.

We should look at these histories, not from the perspective of an outsider, but from the perspective of an American.

These histories are very intricately tied to all of our identities, regardless of our race, ethnicity, or gender. These are the histories of our country. They tell the inspiring story of an unbelievably diverse, resilient nation that has overcome many forms of oppression.

I think it is time we celebrate them accordingly.