Black History Month acts as a gauge of the current political climate, so what steps can we take to refresh it?
We are in Black History Month in the UK, and it feels like it’s time for a rethink. Over the years, an observance that began as a commemorative event of the past, cultural identity and bonds between global Black communities, has developed a business-like atmosphere, broadening to incorporate functions where individuals of African heritage are compensated to talk to Caucasian groups about implicit prejudice and active solidarity. The anti-racism rallies of the last decade generated a rise in the business of displaying cultural sensitivity. But even that moment has passed. The tide has crested, leaving a sort of hollowed out legacy of what raising awareness is for.
The Background of Black History Month
First commemorated in the United States and Canada, Black History Month was conceived in 1962 as “Negro History Week” by historian of African descent 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 officially launched in 1970. Today it is observed not only in the US and Canada in winter, but also in October in the Britain, Germany, the Republic of Ireland and the the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
The month has developed since that time, giving reduced attention to the histories of the slave trade across the Atlantic and fights for racial justice, and increasingly on influential individuals of color in government, the arts, and social movements, and extensively acknowledging the impact Black people have made to influence the nation. It is in schools where Black History Month is most frequently marked, with talks and cultural events. But the manner the observance is celebrated is a reflection of the political moment. How it develops is a good lesson in how assimilation leads to weakening: the reshaping of Black History Month has impeded the point of it, which is to confront structural and organizational discrimination.
A Disconcerting Period
Few things illustrate how crucial it is to rethink Black History Month better than the current time in which it takes place this year. In the UK, a revitalized conservative movement in the shape of the Reform party is ahead in surveys. In the summer we saw the largest far-right rally in the UK's past. the Conservative leader, the Black leader of the Conservative party, is a strong critic of the racial justice movement, and we are in a position where a legislator feels emboldened to say that “not seeing any white faces” in parts of a city is a source of worry. Meanwhile, far-right parties are growing in the EU as a complete entity.
In the United States, a colossal assault against inclusion programs and preferential policies has been carried, repeatedly with positive outcomes, to the supreme judicial bodies of the nation. A drive to remove Black history and narrative from the historical documents is ongoing. One of Donald Trump's first executive orders targeted the museum of African American legacy, and the renowned cultural organization, accusing them of a organized and extensive campaign to rewrite our Nation’s history” by portraying America “as fundamentally prejudiced”.
Against this backdrop, the observance represents how insufficiently it can be influential if it is confined to either routine organizational acknowledgments, or stripped of political content celebrations of former accomplishments, rather than confronting the conditions of the current era. It also shows how its limited duration means that it is separated from the broader ongoing work that is required. An academic expert, a educator at a learning establishment, expressed it perfectly when she voiced worries about the short-term symbolic gestures of the observance. “The difficulty with adopting a symbolic stance”, she commented, “is that it frequently results in that Black History Month becomes a transient display rather than a driver of transformation.”
Rethinking, But Not Jettisoning
Determining how to adapt, revise and extend actions for equal rights and acknowledgment in such periods of dismay and anxiety is a difficult task. There is a urge to just eliminate events including Black History Month entirely, assuming they are inadequate for current needs, or are remnants of an time that has failed to deliver.
Yet, in spite of all this, Black History Month, and in fact the complete comprehensive structure and legacy of activism for racial justice – grassroots Black Lives Matter organisations, diversity equity and inclusion initiatives, and certainly, even commercial engagements – constitute an infrastructure that a significant effort has been dedicated to. It is there not just to decay as the politics moves on (and in fact, declines), but to be a living breathing thing.
So what would a new dynamic Black History Month look like? Well, first, it would be not just one concentrated month: something that is spread out through the year (as various establishments are already commencing), parts of its content (particularly around notable African descendants) included in school curriculums. It would also be a era that does not avoid governmental matters, and allows opportunity for people, particularly the younger generation, to air their fears and experiences. What use is basic knowledge of the bygone era when it ignores the contemporary truth of far-right rallies in the public spaces? Organizations who celebrate it should not be comforted with the non-confrontational words of implicit prejudice and awareness of minor insults, but confronted with the dangers that impact society if anti-racism is not approached earnestly. To summarize, Black History Month should be made up-to-date, pressing, and adaptive. Perhaps an complete renaming is in order – Black History is Now Month.
