Black History Month serves as a mirror of the prevailing political atmosphere, so how do we revamp it?
This is Black History Month in the Britain, and it appears it’s time for a rethink. Throughout its history, an event that started out as a commemorative event of history, culture and the connections between Black populations worldwide, has taken on a business-like atmosphere, expanding to include events where African descendants are remunerated to address Caucasian groups about hidden biases and active solidarity. The demonstrations for racial justice in the 2020s created a surge in the business of showcasing anti-racist commitment. However, that period has concluded. The wave has reached its height, leaving a sort of hollowed out legacy of what raising awareness is for.
The History of Black History Observance
Initially celebrated in the US and Canada, Black History Month was created in 1962 as “Negro History Week” by African American historian Carter G. Woodson with seven days of commemoration and observance in the second week of February. Black History Month evolved from this campaign and was officially launched in 1970. Currently it is marked not only in the United States and Canada in the second month, but also in the tenth month in the United Kingdom, the Federal Republic of Germany, the Republic of Ireland and the the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
The month has transformed since that time, placing less emphasis on the histories of the slave trade across the Atlantic and struggles for equality, and increasingly on prominent Black figures in public life, creative fields, and advocacy, and widely honoring the input Black people have made to mold society. It is in learning environments where Black History Month is most commonly celebrated, with lectures and artistic activities. But the manner the observance is celebrated is a indication of the current political situation. How it progresses is a instructive case in how assimilation leads to weakening: the restructuring of Black History Month has stymied the objective of it, which is to tackle embedded and established prejudice.
A Troubling Time
Hardly anything shows how crucial it is to reconsider Black History Month as much as the current time in which it falls this year. In the UK, a reemerging right-wing in the shape of the Reform political group is top in opinion ratings. In the summer we witnessed the biggest extreme right demonstration in the UK's past. a prominent political figure, the person of color at the helm of the right-wing political group, is a firm opponent of anti-racism activism, and we are in a position where a elected representative gains confidence to state that the absence of Caucasian individuals in certain urban areas is a reason for concern. At the same time, far-right parties are growing in the European continent as a entirety.
In the United States, a massive attack against inclusion programs and preferential policies has been taken, often successfully, to the highest courts of the nation. A effort to scrub Black history and narrative from the records is ongoing. One of the political figure's first executive orders focused on the museum of African American legacy, and the Smithsonian Institution, accusing them of a coordinated and broad attempt to alter the country's historical narrative” by depicting the United States “as fundamentally prejudiced”.
Given these circumstances, the observance symbolises how minimally it can be influential if it is confined to either routine organizational acknowledgments, or politically neutered festivities of former accomplishments, rather than addressing the realities of the current era. It also shows how its short period means that it is detached from the broader ongoing work that is needed. An academic expert, a professor at a learning establishment, expressed it perfectly when she voiced worries about the short-term symbolic gestures of the observance. “The difficulty with taking a tokenistic approach”, she wrote, “is that it typically leads to that Black History Month evolves into a transient display rather than a driver of transformation.”
Reevaluating, Not Abandoning
Establishing how to adjust, modify and expand actions for equal rights and acknowledgment in such periods of dismay and anxiety is a difficult task. There is a temptation to just eliminate things like Black History Month altogether, thinking they are simply not fit for purpose, or are relics of an era that has been ineffective.
Yet, in spite of all this, Black History Month, and in fact the whole broad system and heritage of racial movements – local anti-racism groups, diversity equity and inclusion initiatives, and indeed, including corporate presentations – form an framework that a considerable labor 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? Well, first, it would be more than a single focused period: something that is spread out through the year (as some institutions are already beginning to do), elements of its material (particularly around historic Black characters) incorporated into academic syllabi. It would also be a period that does not avoid politics, and allows opportunity for people, particularly young people, to share their anxieties and narratives. What purpose serves basic knowledge of the past when it doesn’t reckon with the current situation of ultra-nationalist gatherings in the public spaces? Institutions who observe it should not be comforted with the neutral terminology of “unconscious bias” and awareness of “microaggressions”, but faced with the threats that affect everyone if opposition to discrimination is not approached earnestly. Briefly stated, Black History Month should be made contemporary, pressing, and responsive. Perhaps an complete renaming is required – Black History is Now Month.
