The annual Black History observance is a reflection of the current political climate, so in what ways can we modernize it?
We are in Black History Month in the UK, and it feels like it’s time for a reassessment. As time has passed, an celebration that began as a festivity and recollection of heritage, traditions and links between global Black communities, has taken on a commercial tone, growing to encompass functions where individuals of African heritage are paid to talk to predominantly white listeners about implicit prejudice and supportive partnership. The 2020s Black Lives Matter protests generated a rise in the business of demonstrating racial awareness. Yet, that phase is now over. The wave has crested, producing a diluted aftermath of what raising awareness is for.
The Background of Black History Observance
Originally observed in the US and Canada, Black History Month was created in 1962 as an observance of African American heritage by Black scholar Carter G. Woodson with multiple days of remembrance and recognition in the middle of February. Black History Month grew out of this campaign and was formally inaugurated in 1970. Currently it is marked not only in the United States and Canada in February, but also in autumn in the Britain, Deutschland, Ireland and the Netherlands.
The observance has evolved since its inception, giving reduced attention to the narratives of the slave trade across the Atlantic and struggles for equality, and increasingly on influential individuals of color in public life, creative fields, and advocacy, and extensively acknowledging the impact Black people have made to mold society. It is in schools where Black History Month is most frequently marked, with discussions and heritage festivities. But the way the month is celebrated is a reflection of the contemporary political context. How it progresses is a valuable example in how co-option leads to erosion: the transformation of Black History Month has stymied the purpose of it, which is to tackle systemic and institutional racism.
A Troubling Time
Little demonstrates how crucial it is to reevaluate Black History Month more than the particular moment in which it falls this year. In the United Kingdom, a reemerging right-wing in the guise of the Reform organization is top in opinion ratings. In the summer we observed the biggest extreme right demonstration in the UK's past. Kemi Badenoch, the person of color at the helm of the right-wing political group, is a strong critic of the racial justice movement, and we are in a place where a legislator gains confidence to say that the absence of Caucasian individuals in specific city neighborhoods is a reason for concern. Simultaneously, ultra-nationalist movements are surging in Europe as a entirety.
In the United States, a colossal assault against inclusion programs and preferential policies has been taken, frequently with success, to the highest courts of the state. A effort to remove the history of people of color and narrative from the historical documents is under way. One of Donald Trump's initial presidential directives focused on the institution dedicated to Black heritage, and the prestigious establishment, alleging that they of a “concerted and widespread effort to alter the country's historical narrative” by representing the nation “as fundamentally prejudiced”.
Against this backdrop, the observance represents how insufficiently it can be influential if it is restricted to either routine organizational acknowledgments, or stripped of political content commemorations of historical achievements, rather than challenging the conditions of the contemporary world. It also shows how its limited duration means that it is detached from the more extensive continuous action that is necessary. Denise Miller, a prof at a learning establishment, expressed it perfectly when she raised concerns about the short-term symbolic gestures of the month. “The problem with adopting a symbolic stance”, she wrote, “is that it often means that Black History Month turns into a fleeting performance rather than a driver of transformation.”
Reevaluating, Not Abandoning
Determining how to adapt, revise and extend initiatives for fair treatment and appreciation in such periods of dismay and anxiety is a difficult task. There is a temptation to just do away with things like Black History Month entirely, thinking they are simply not fit for purpose, or are relics of an time that has been ineffective.
Yet, in spite of all this, Black History Month, and in fact the complete comprehensive structure and heritage of campaigns for equality – community-based BLM initiatives, inclusion and equity efforts, and yes, even those talks to businesses – constitute an infrastructure that a significant effort has been dedicated to. It is there not merely to decline as the politics moves on (and in fact, deteriorates), but to be a living breathing thing.
So what would a contemporary active Black History Month appear as? Firstly, it would be not just one concentrated month: something that is spread out across all seasons (as certain organizations are already beginning to do), sections of its curriculum (particularly around prominent figures of color) integrated into school curriculums. It would also be a era that does not avoid politics, and allows opportunity for individuals, particularly young people, to air their fears and experiences. What use is mere awareness of the past when it doesn’t reckon with the contemporary truth of ultra-nationalist gatherings in the street? Institutions who celebrate it should not be comforted with the passive language of “unconscious bias” and alertness to subtle slights, but confronted with the threats that affect everyone if fight against prejudice is not treated with importance. To summarize, Black History Month should be made contemporary, urgent, and adaptive. It could be that an total re-identification is in order – Contemporary Black History Month.
