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 feels like it’s time for a rethink. Over the years, an observance that was initiated as a festivity and recollection of heritage, traditions and links between global Black communities, has taken on a business-like atmosphere, expanding to include gatherings where individuals of African heritage are remunerated to address predominantly white listeners about implicit prejudice and active solidarity. The demonstrations for racial justice in the 2020s generated a rise in the industry of showcasing anti-racist commitment. However, that period has concluded. The tide has reached its height, producing a diluted aftermath of what promoting consciousness is for.
The Background of Black History Month
Initially celebrated in the America and its northern neighbor, Black History Month was created in 1962 as an observance of African American heritage by Black scholar Carter G. Woodson with multiple days of remembrance and recognition in the middle of February. Black History Month evolved from this campaign and was publicly established in 1970. Today it is observed not only in the North America in February, but also in October in the Britain, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands.
The month has evolved since its inception, giving reduced attention to the accounts of the slave trade across the Atlantic and civil rights battles, and increasingly on prominent Black figures in government, the arts, and social movements, and extensively acknowledging the impact Black people have made to mold society. It is in schools where Black History Month is most regularly observed, with discussions and heritage festivities. But the method the observance is observed is a indication of the political moment. How it develops is a good lesson in how co-option leads to erosion: the reshaping of Black History Month has impeded the objective of it, which is to address embedded and established prejudice.
A Troubling Time
Little demonstrates how important it is to reconsider Black History Month as much as the current time in which it falls this year. In the UK, a resurgent right in the shape of the Reform political group is ahead in surveys. In the warmer months we witnessed the biggest extreme right demonstration in British history. a prominent political figure, the Black leader of the Conservative party, is a firm opponent 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 cause for alarm. Simultaneously, far-right parties are growing in Europe as a entirety.
In the US, a significant offensive against DEI and affirmative action has been carried, frequently with success, to the supreme judicial bodies of the state. A drive to erase the history of people of color and narrative from the historical documents is ongoing. One of the political figure's early administrative commands aimed at the museum of African American legacy, and the Smithsonian Institution, alleging that they of a “concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history” by representing the nation “as inherently racist”.
Given these circumstances, the celebration illustrates how minimally it can be influential if it is confined to either obligatory business commemorations, or depoliticized commemorations of historical achievements, rather than confronting the realities of the contemporary world. It also reveals how its short period means that it is disconnected from the broader ongoing work that is necessary. Denise Miller, a prof at an educational institution, put it best when she raised concerns about the short-term symbolic gestures of the celebration. “The difficulty with adopting a symbolic stance”, she commented, “is that it frequently results in that Black History Month turns into a fleeting performance rather than a agent of progress.”
Reevaluating, Not Abandoning
Figuring out how to alter, change and broaden initiatives for equal rights and acknowledgment in such periods of dismay and anxiety is a difficult task. There is a inclination to just discontinue observances such as Black History Month completely, believing they are simply not fit for purpose, or are vestiges of an period that has not worked.
Yet, in spite of all this, Black History Month, and in fact the entire extended network and tradition of campaigns for equality – local anti-racism groups, inclusion and equity efforts, and indeed, including corporate presentations – form an infrastructure that a considerable labor has been dedicated to. It is there not merely to decline as the situation evolves (and in fact, declines), but to be a vital organism.
So what would a contemporary active Black History Month seem? Firstly, it would be not just one concentrated month: something that is dispersed throughout the annual calendar (as some institutions are already starting to implement), elements of its material (particularly around notable African descendants) integrated into school curriculums. It would also be a time that does not avoid politics, and allows opportunity for citizens, particularly the younger generation, to air their fears and experiences. What purpose serves simple recognition of the past when it ignores the current situation of far-right rallies in the urban areas? Establishments who celebrate it should not be reassured with the neutral terminology of implicit prejudice and alertness to “microaggressions”, but confronted with the risks that affect everyone if fight against prejudice is not approached earnestly. To summarize, Black History Month should be made contemporary, critical, and reactive. It could be that an complete renaming is in order – Present-Day African Heritage Celebration.
