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 UK, and it feels like it’s time for a rethink. Throughout its history, an event that began as a festivity and recollection of heritage, traditions and links between international African diaspora communities, has taken on a commercial tone, growing to encompass functions where African descendants are paid to address white audiences about hidden biases and supportive partnership. The anti-racism rallies of the last decade generated a rise in the industry of displaying cultural sensitivity. But even that moment has passed. The surge has crested, leaving a sort of hollowed out legacy of what increasing understanding 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 “Negro History Week” by African American historian Carter G. Woodson with seven days of celebration and reflection in the second week of February. Black History Month evolved from this campaign and was officially launched in 1970. Today it is observed not only in the US and Canada in winter, but also in the tenth month in the Britain, Deutschland, Éire and the Holland.
The month has developed since that time, placing less emphasis on the narratives of the slave trade across the Atlantic and civil rights battles, and more on prominent Black figures in politics, culture, and activism, and widely honoring the contribution Black people have made to shape the country. It is in learning environments where Black History Month is most commonly celebrated, with lectures and artistic activities. But the way the celebration is commemorated is a manifestation of the contemporary political context. How it progresses is a valuable example in how assimilation leads to dismantling: the transformation of Black History Month has hindered the point of it, which is to address systemic and institutional racism.
A Troubling Time
Hardly anything shows how crucial it is to reevaluate Black History Month more than the current time in which it occurs this year. In the United Kingdom, a resurgent right in the form of the Reform organization is leading the polls. In the recent season we observed the biggest extreme right demonstration in the UK's past. Kemi Badenoch, the Black leader of the Conservative party, is a staunch adversary of the racial justice movement, and we are in a position where a legislator gains confidence to state that the absence of Caucasian individuals in parts of a city is a cause for alarm. Simultaneously, extreme conservative groups are expanding in the European continent as a whole.
In the US, a colossal assault against inclusion programs and preferential policies has been taken, repeatedly with positive outcomes, to the supreme judicial bodies of the country. A effort to erase the history of people of color and experience from the archives is ongoing. One of the political figure's early administrative commands targeted the museum of African American legacy, and the prestigious establishment, claiming they of a “concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history” by portraying America “as inherently racist”.
In this context, the observance symbolises how insufficiently it can be effective if it is confined to either routine organizational acknowledgments, or stripped of political content festivities of historical achievements, rather than addressing the conditions of the present. It also shows how its limited duration means that it is separated from the more extensive continuous action that is required. A university professor, a prof at University of Greenwich, articulated it most accurately when she raised concerns about the short-term symbolic gestures of the observance. “The issue with taking a tokenistic approach”, she stated, “is that it often means that Black History Month turns into a brief show rather than a driver of transformation.”
Reconsidering, Not Discarding
Establishing how to alter, change and broaden actions for equal rights and acknowledgment in such moments of dejection and worry is a difficult task. There is a temptation to just do away with observances such as Black History Month completely, thinking they are simply not fit for purpose, or are relics of an time 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, DEI programs, and indeed, including corporate presentations – constitute an foundation that a lot of work has been dedicated to. It is there not only to deteriorate as the situation evolves (and in fact, regresses), but to be a vital organism.
So what would a fresh vibrant Black History Month look like? Well, first, it would be more than a single focused period: something that is distributed through the year (as some institutions are already commencing), sections of its curriculum (particularly around prominent figures of color) incorporated into academic syllabi. It would also be a period that does not evade political issues, and leaves space for individuals, particularly the younger generation, to share their anxieties and narratives. What value has simple recognition of the past when it fails to address the contemporary truth of ultra-nationalist gatherings in the urban areas? Organizations who mark it should not be pacified with the neutral terminology of hidden discrimination and alertness to subtle slights, but challenged by the threats that impact society if opposition to discrimination is not approached earnestly. To summarize, Black History Month should be made contemporary, critical, and adaptive. It could be that an entire name rebrand is in order – Present-Day African Heritage Celebration.
