This commemorative month serves as a mirror of the current political climate, so in what ways can we modernize it?
We are in Black History Month in the United Kingdom, and it feels like it’s time for a rethink. Over the years, an celebration that started out as a festivity and recollection of history, culture and the connections between Black populations worldwide, has adopted a corporate feel, expanding to include gatherings where individuals of African heritage are paid to address white audiences about implicit prejudice and active solidarity. The 2020s Black Lives Matter protests created a surge in the industry of showcasing anti-racist commitment. But even that moment has passed. The surge has crested, resulting in a somewhat empty inheritance of what raising awareness is for.
The Origins of Black History Month
Originally observed in the United States and Canada, Black History Month was conceived in 1962 as “Negro History Week” by Black scholar Carter G. Woodson with seven days of commemoration and observance in the middle of February. Black History Month developed from this movement and was officially launched in 1970. Currently it is marked not only in the US and Canada in winter, but also in the tenth month in the United Kingdom, the Federal Republic of Germany, Ireland and the the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
The period has transformed since its inception, placing less emphasis on the narratives of the slave trade across the Atlantic and civil rights battles, and greater focus on influential individuals of color in government, the arts, and social movements, and widely honoring the impact Black people have made to influence the nation. It is in educational institutions where Black History Month is most commonly celebrated, with talks and cultural events. But the method the month is commemorated is a indication of the political moment. How it progresses is a good lesson in how appropriation leads to weakening: the reshaping of Black History Month has impeded the objective of it, which is to confront structural and organizational discrimination.
A Jarring Moment
Few things illustrate how important it is to rethink Black History Month as much as the current time in which it falls this year. In the UK, a reemerging right-wing in the guise of the Reform party is ahead in surveys. In the summer we observed the biggest extreme right demonstration in British history. the Conservative leader, the person of color at the helm of the Conservative party, is a firm opponent of the racial justice movement, and we are in a place where a member of parliament feels emboldened to state that a lack of white people in certain urban areas is a cause for alarm. Simultaneously, far-right parties are growing in the EU as a entirety.
In the America, a massive attack against diversity initiatives and positive discrimination has been carried, repeatedly with positive outcomes, to the top legal institutions of the state. A drive to scrub African American heritage and experience from the records is in progress. One of the former president's initial presidential directives focused on the institution dedicated to Black heritage, and the Smithsonian Institution, claiming they of a “concerted and widespread effort to alter the country's historical narrative” by depicting the United States “as inherently racist”.
Given these circumstances, the celebration represents how minimally it can be impactful if it is confined to either routine organizational acknowledgments, or politically neutered celebrations of contributions in the past, rather than confronting the situation of the present. It also shows how its short period means that it is detached from the more extensive continuous action that is necessary. An academic expert, a prof at University of Greenwich, articulated it most accurately when she expressed apprehension about the short-term symbolic gestures of the celebration. “The issue with adopting a symbolic stance”, she wrote, “is that it typically leads to that Black History Month becomes a brief show rather than a agent of progress.”
Rethinking, But Not Jettisoning
Figuring out how to adjust, modify and expand actions for equal rights and acknowledgment in such moments of dejection and worry is a difficult task. There is a inclination to just discontinue events including Black History Month entirely, thinking they are simply not fit for purpose, or are relics of an period that has failed to deliver.
However, regardless of the situation, Black History Month, and in fact the whole broad system and tradition of campaigns for equality – community-based BLM initiatives, DEI programs, and certainly, even commercial engagements – represent an foundation that a lot of work has been invested in. 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 new dynamic Black History Month appear as? To begin with, it would be more than a single focused period: something that is distributed across all seasons (as some institutions are already commencing), parts of its content (particularly around historic Black characters) included in school curriculums. It would also be a time that does not evade political issues, and allows opportunity for citizens, particularly young people, to express their concerns and stories. What use is basic knowledge of the history when it fails to address the contemporary truth of far-right rallies in the street? Establishments who celebrate it should not be comforted with the non-confrontational words of hidden discrimination and alertness to subtle slights, but confronted with the threats that affect everyone if opposition to discrimination is not taken seriously. In short, Black History Month should be made contemporary, pressing, and responsive. It could be that an complete renaming is in order – Contemporary Black History Month.
