This commemorative month is a reflection of the prevailing political atmosphere, so what steps can we take to refresh it?
It's Black History Month in the United Kingdom, and it appears it’s time for a re-evaluation. Throughout its history, an observance that started out as a celebration and reminder of heritage, traditions and links between global Black communities, has taken on a corporate feel, growing to encompass gatherings where Black people are compensated to speak with Caucasian groups about implicit prejudice and “allyship”. The anti-racism rallies of the last decade sparked an increase in the industry of demonstrating racial awareness. But even that moment has passed. The surge has reached its height, leaving a sort of hollowed out legacy of what raising awareness is for.
The Origins of Black History Celebration
Initially celebrated in the United States and Canada, Black History Month was established in 1962 as “Negro History Week” by Black scholar Carter G. Woodson with a week of commemoration and observance in the February's second week. Black History Month grew out of this movement and was publicly established in 1970. Now it is celebrated not only in the US and Canada in the second month, but also in October in the UK, Deutschland, Éire and the the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
The observance has evolved since those days, placing less emphasis on the narratives of transatlantic enslavement and struggles for equality, and increasingly on notable African descendants in government, the arts, and social movements, and widely honoring the input Black people have made to shape the country. It is in learning environments where Black History Month is most frequently marked, with discussions and heritage festivities. But the method the observance is celebrated is a manifestation of the contemporary political context. How it progresses is a good lesson 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 critical it is to reevaluate Black History Month as much as the particular moment in which it occurs this year. In the United Kingdom, a revitalized conservative movement in the shape of the Reform organization is leading the polls. In the summer we saw the biggest extreme right demonstration in the UK's past. the Conservative leader, the African descendant in charge of the Conservative party, is a firm opponent of the racial justice movement, and we are in a situation where a member of parliament feels emboldened to declare that “not seeing any white faces” in specific city neighborhoods is a cause for alarm. At the same time, far-right parties are surging in the European continent as a complete entity.
In the America, a massive attack against inclusion programs and preferential policies has been brought, frequently with success, to the top legal institutions of the nation. A drive to erase the history of people of color and narrative from the archives is in progress. One of the former president's first executive orders aimed at the museum of African American legacy, and the prestigious establishment, claiming they of a organized and extensive campaign to alter the country's historical narrative” by representing the nation “as inherently racist”.
Against this backdrop, the observance symbolises how minimally it can be influential if it is restricted to either obligatory business commemorations, or stripped of political content celebrations of former accomplishments, rather than confronting the conditions of the present. It also shows how its limited duration means that it is separated from the wider consistent effort that is necessary. Denise Miller, a prof at a learning establishment, articulated it most accurately when she raised concerns about the short-term symbolic gestures of the observance. “The difficulty with taking a tokenistic approach”, she commented, “is that it frequently results in that Black History Month becomes a transient display rather than a catalyst for change.”
Reevaluating, Not Abandoning
Establishing how to adjust, modify and expand initiatives for racial equality and recognition in such moments of dejection and worry is a difficult task. There is a temptation to just eliminate events including Black History Month altogether, assuming they are simply not fit for purpose, or are remnants of an time that has failed to deliver.
But despite everything, Black History Month, and in fact the entire extended network and legacy of racial movements – local anti-racism groups, diversity equity and inclusion initiatives, and certainly, even commercial engagements – constitute an infrastructure that a significant effort has gone into. It is there not just to decay as the political landscape shifts (and in fact, declines), but to be a dynamic entity.
So what would a contemporary active Black History Month look like? Well, first, it would be not just one concentrated month: something that is distributed across all seasons (as certain organizations are already starting to implement), parts of its content (particularly around historic Black characters) included in academic syllabi. It would also be a era that does not avoid governmental matters, and leaves space for people, particularly young people, to express their concerns and stories. What value has mere awareness of the past when it doesn’t reckon with the present reality of extreme conservative demonstrations in the urban areas? Organizations who celebrate it should not be comforted with the non-confrontational words of “unconscious bias” and awareness of “microaggressions”, but challenged by the risks that impact society if anti-racism is not treated with importance. In short, Black History Month should be made up-to-date, critical, and adaptive. Perhaps an complete renaming is necessary – Black History is Now Month.
