Black History Month serves as a mirror of the current political climate, so in what ways can we modernize it?
This is Black History Month in the UK, and it seems it’s time for a rethink. As time has passed, an celebration that started out as a festivity and recollection of heritage, traditions and links between Black populations worldwide, has developed a corporate feel, growing to encompass events where Black people are paid to address Caucasian groups about hidden biases and “allyship”. The anti-racism rallies of the last decade generated a rise in the industry of showcasing anti-racist commitment. However, that period has concluded. The surge has peaked, leaving a sort of hollowed out legacy of what raising awareness is for.
The Origins of Black History Observance
Initially celebrated in the United States and Canada, Black History Month was created in 1962 as “Negro History Week” by historian of African descent Carter G. Woodson with a week of commemoration and observance in the February's second week. Black History Month evolved from this movement and was publicly established in 1970. Currently it is marked not only in the United States and Canada in winter, but also in autumn in the UK, Germany, the Republic of Ireland and the Holland.
The period has transformed since those days, placing less emphasis on the accounts of the slave trade across the Atlantic and fights for racial justice, and greater focus on influential individuals of color in public life, creative fields, and advocacy, and extensively acknowledging the impact Black people have made to influence the nation. It is in educational institutions where Black History Month is most frequently marked, with discussions and heritage festivities. But the manner the observance is celebrated is a manifestation of the current political situation. How it progresses is a good lesson in how appropriation leads to weakening: the transformation of Black History Month has hindered the purpose of it, which is to address structural and organizational discrimination.
A Disconcerting Period
Hardly anything shows how crucial it is to rethink Black History Month better than the current time in which it falls this year. In the United Kingdom, a resurgent right in the guise of the Reform party is leading the polls. In the warmer months we observed the biggest extreme right demonstration in the history of Britain. Kemi Badenoch, the person of color at the helm of the Tory party, is a staunch adversary of anti-racism activism, and we are in a situation where a member of parliament feels empowered to declare that a lack of white people in specific city neighborhoods is a reason for concern. At the same time, far-right parties are surging in the EU as a entirety.
In the America, a massive attack against DEI and affirmative action has been brought, often successfully, to the highest courts of the country. A effort to remove African American heritage and experience from the historical documents is under way. One of the political figure's early administrative commands focused on the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the prestigious establishment, alleging that they of a coordinated and broad attempt to alter the country's historical narrative” by portraying America “as naturally discriminatory”.
Against this backdrop, the month illustrates how little it can be effective if it is restricted to either dutiful corporate observances, or stripped of political content festivities of former accomplishments, rather than challenging the conditions of the contemporary world. It also shows how its short period means that it is separated from the wider consistent effort that is needed. A university professor, a professor at University of Greenwich, expressed it perfectly when she voiced worries about the short-term symbolic gestures of the celebration. “The difficulty with adopting a symbolic stance”, she wrote, “is that it typically leads to that Black History Month turns into a fleeting performance rather than a driver of transformation.”
Reevaluating, Not Abandoning
Determining how to adjust, modify and expand efforts for equal rights and acknowledgment in such periods of dismay and anxiety is a treacherous thing. There is a temptation to just do away with observances such as Black History Month altogether, assuming they are simply not fit for purpose, or are remnants of an period that has not worked.
But despite everything, Black History Month, and in fact the complete comprehensive structure and heritage of racial movements – grassroots Black Lives Matter organisations, inclusion and equity efforts, and certainly, even commercial engagements – represent an infrastructure that a significant effort has been invested in. It is there not merely to decline as the situation evolves (and in fact, deteriorates), but to be a living breathing thing.
So what would a fresh vibrant Black History Month look like? Firstly, it would be more than a single focused period: something that is spread out through the year (as various establishments are already starting to implement), elements of its material (particularly around notable African descendants) included in school curriculums. It would also be a era that does not avoid political issues, and allows opportunity for individuals, particularly the younger generation, to share their anxieties and narratives. What use is basic knowledge of the past when it ignores the contemporary truth of far-right rallies in the urban areas? Establishments who mark it should not be reassured with the neutral terminology of “unconscious bias” and awareness of minor insults, but faced with the dangers that impact society if fight against prejudice is not taken seriously. In short, Black History Month should be made current, urgent, and adaptive. Perhaps an entire name rebrand is necessary – Contemporary Black History Month.
