Black History Month is a reflection of the political moment, so in what ways can we modernize it?
It's Black History Month in the UK, and it feels like it’s time for a reassessment. Over the years, an observance that began as a commemorative event of the past, cultural identity and bonds between Black populations worldwide, has taken on a commercial tone, expanding to include events where Black people are compensated to speak with predominantly white listeners about implicit prejudice and supportive partnership. The demonstrations for racial justice in the 2020s generated a rise in the industry of demonstrating racial awareness. However, that period has concluded. The tide has reached its height, leaving a sort of hollowed out legacy of what raising awareness is for.
The Background of Black History Observance
First commemorated in the United States and Canada, Black History Month was created in 1962 as “Negro History Week” by Black scholar Carter G. Woodson with a week of celebration and reflection in the second week of February. Black History Month evolved from this movement and was formally inaugurated in 1970. Now it is celebrated not only in the US and Canada in the second month, but also in autumn in the UK, Germany, Éire and the Netherlands.
The period has transformed since those days, giving reduced attention to the accounts of transatlantic enslavement and struggles for equality, and more on notable African descendants in government, the arts, and social movements, and broadly celebrating the contribution Black people have made to shape the country. It is in schools where Black History Month is most frequently marked, with discussions and heritage festivities. But the manner the month is observed is a manifestation of the current political situation. How it evolves is a valuable example in how co-option leads to weakening: the transformation of Black History Month has impeded the point of it, which is to address structural and organizational discrimination.
A Troubling Time
Little demonstrates how important it is to rethink Black History Month more than the specific period in which it occurs this year. In the Britain, a resurgent right in the form of the Reform organization is ahead in surveys. In the summer we observed the largest far-right rally in British history. Kemi Badenoch, the African descendant in charge of the Tory party, is a staunch adversary of Black Lives Matter, and we are in a position where a legislator gains confidence to declare that a lack of white people in specific city neighborhoods is a source of worry. Simultaneously, extreme conservative groups are surging in the European continent as a whole.
In the United States, a massive attack against diversity initiatives and positive discrimination has been carried, often successfully, to the top legal institutions of the country. A effort to scrub the history of people of color and legacy from the archives is ongoing. One of Donald Trump's initial presidential directives focused on the museum of African American legacy, and the Smithsonian Institution, accusing them of a “concerted and widespread effort to alter the country's historical narrative” by depicting the United States “as inherently racist”.
In this context, the observance symbolises how little it can be effective if it is restricted to either dutiful corporate observances, or stripped of political content commemorations of historical achievements, rather than challenging the conditions of the contemporary world. It also reveals how its limited duration means that it is separated from the wider consistent effort that is necessary. A university professor, a educator at an educational institution, articulated it most accurately when she voiced worries about the short-term symbolic gestures of the observance. “The problem with adopting a symbolic stance”, she wrote, “is that it frequently results in that Black History Month becomes a brief show rather than a agent of progress.”
Reconsidering, Not Discarding
Establishing how to alter, change and broaden efforts for racial equality and recognition in such moments of dejection and worry is a difficult task. There is a inclination to just do away with observances such as Black History Month completely, assuming they are simply not fit for purpose, or are relics of an era that has not worked.
However, regardless of the situation, Black History Month, and in fact the complete comprehensive structure and heritage of racial movements – community-based BLM initiatives, inclusion and equity efforts, and yes, even those talks to businesses – constitute an framework that a lot of work has been dedicated to. It is there not merely to decline as the politics moves on (and in fact, regresses), but to be a living breathing thing.
So what would a fresh vibrant Black History Month seem? Firstly, it would be extended beyond a brief observance: something that is spread out throughout the annual calendar (as some institutions are already beginning to do), elements of its material (particularly around notable African descendants) included in school curriculums. It would also be a period that does not avoid political issues, and provides room for individuals, particularly youth, to express their concerns and stories. What purpose serves mere awareness of the past when it fails to address the present reality of ultra-nationalist gatherings in the public spaces? Institutions who observe it should not be comforted with the passive language of hidden discrimination and alertness to minor insults, but confronted with the dangers that affect everyone if opposition to discrimination is not approached earnestly. To summarize, Black History Month should be made contemporary, urgent, and responsive. Perhaps an entire name rebrand is necessary – Black History is Now Month.
