The annual Black History observance serves as a mirror of the current political climate, so in what ways can we modernize it?
This is Black History Month in the Britain, and it feels like it’s time for a reassessment. Throughout its history, an celebration that started out as a commemorative event of the past, cultural identity and bonds between international African diaspora communities, has adopted a corporate feel, broadening to incorporate gatherings where individuals of African heritage are paid to address white audiences about “unconscious bias” and “allyship”. The anti-racism rallies of the last decade generated a rise in the enterprise of displaying cultural sensitivity. But even that moment has passed. The tide has reached its height, leaving a sort of hollowed out legacy of what promoting consciousness is for.
The History of Black History Month
First commemorated in the America and its northern neighbor, Black History Month was established in 1962 as a week dedicated to Negro history by Black scholar Carter G. Woodson with multiple days of commemoration and observance in the second week of February. Black History Month grew out of this initiative and was publicly established in 1970. Currently it is marked not only in the North America in winter, but also in the tenth month in the United Kingdom, Deutschland, Éire and the Holland.
The observance has developed since its inception, placing less emphasis on the histories of the slave trade across the Atlantic and civil rights battles, and more on prominent Black figures in public life, creative fields, and advocacy, and extensively acknowledging the impact Black people have made to influence the nation. It is in schools where Black History Month is most commonly celebrated, with discussions and heritage festivities. But the method the celebration is celebrated is a manifestation of the contemporary political context. How it progresses is a instructive case in how assimilation leads to weakening: the transformation of Black History Month has impeded the objective of it, which is to address systemic and institutional racism.
A Jarring Moment
Little demonstrates how critical it is to reconsider Black History Month more than the specific period in which it occurs this year. In the Britain, a reemerging right-wing in the guise of the Reform organization is leading the polls. In the recent season we saw the largest far-right rally in British history. the Conservative leader, the Black leader of the Conservative party, is a staunch adversary of anti-racism activism, and we are in a place where a legislator gains confidence to state that the absence of Caucasian individuals in parts of a city is a cause for alarm. At the same time, ultra-nationalist movements are growing in the European continent as a whole.
In the US, a colossal assault against DEI and affirmative action has been carried, frequently with success, to the supreme judicial bodies of the nation. A drive to remove Black history and narrative from the records is in progress. One of Donald Trump's first executive orders aimed at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the Smithsonian Institution, accusing them of a coordinated and broad attempt to rewrite our Nation’s history” by portraying America “as naturally discriminatory”.
In this context, the observance symbolises how little it can be influential if it is confined to either dutiful corporate observances, or politically neutered festivities of contributions in the past, rather than challenging the realities of the current era. It also shows how its short period means that it is detached from the wider consistent effort that is required. A university professor, a prof at University of Greenwich, articulated it most accurately when she expressed apprehension about the fleeting superficial actions of the celebration. “The issue with taking a tokenistic approach”, she wrote, “is that it frequently results in that Black History Month becomes a fleeting performance rather than a driver of transformation.”
Reconsidering, Not Discarding
Determining how to adjust, modify and expand initiatives for equal rights and acknowledgment in such periods of dismay and anxiety is a challenging endeavor. There is a urge to just discontinue things like Black History Month entirely, believing they are simply not fit for purpose, or are relics of an period that has not worked.
Yet, in spite of all this, Black History Month, and in fact the entire extended network and tradition of racial movements – grassroots Black Lives Matter organisations, diversity equity and inclusion initiatives, and certainly, even commercial engagements – form an foundation that a considerable labor has been invested in. It is there not merely to decline as the situation evolves (and in fact, declines), but to be a living breathing thing.
So what would a contemporary active Black History Month appear as? To begin with, it would be more than a single focused period: something that is dispersed across all seasons (as various establishments are already commencing), sections of its curriculum (particularly around historic Black characters) integrated into academic syllabi. It would also be a period that does not avoid political issues, and allows opportunity for individuals, particularly the younger generation, to air their fears and experiences. What purpose serves basic knowledge of the bygone era when it fails to address the contemporary truth of far-right rallies in the public spaces? Institutions who observe it should not be pacified with the non-confrontational words of implicit prejudice and awareness of “microaggressions”, but confronted with the risks that face all if opposition to discrimination is not treated with importance. In short, Black History Month should be made current, pressing, and reactive. It could be that an complete renaming is in order – Black History is Now Month.
