This is Black History Month in the United Kingdom, and it feels like it’s time for a reassessment. As time has passed, an observance that was initiated as a commemorative event of history, culture and the connections between global Black communities, has taken on a corporate feel, growing to encompass events where Black people are remunerated to speak with white audiences about hidden biases and “allyship”. The anti-racism rallies of the last decade generated a rise in the business of showcasing anti-racist commitment. However, that period has concluded. The tide has reached its height, leaving a sort of hollowed out legacy of what raising awareness is for.
First commemorated in the United States and Canada, Black History Month was conceived in 1962 as a week dedicated to Negro history by African American historian Carter G. Woodson with a week of celebration and reflection in the February's second week. Black History Month grew out of this movement and was formally inaugurated in 1970. Currently it is marked not only in the North America in winter, but also in October in the Britain, Deutschland, Éire and the the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
The observance has developed since those days, placing less emphasis on the narratives of the slave trade across the Atlantic and struggles for equality, and greater focus on influential individuals of color in public life, creative fields, and advocacy, and broadly celebrating the contribution Black people have made to shape the country. It is in learning environments where Black History Month is most regularly observed, with talks and cultural events. But the method the celebration is celebrated is a manifestation of the political moment. How it develops is a instructive case in how assimilation leads to dismantling: the transformation of Black History Month has stymied the point of it, which is to tackle systemic and institutional racism.
Little demonstrates how important it is to reconsider Black History Month as much as the current time in which it takes place this year. In the UK, a resurgent right in the shape of the Reform organization is leading the polls. In the warmer months we saw the largest far-right rally in the UK's past. a prominent political figure, the African descendant in charge of the right-wing political group, is a staunch adversary of the racial justice movement, and we are in a place where a member of parliament feels empowered to declare that a lack of white people in specific city neighborhoods is a cause for alarm. Meanwhile, extreme conservative groups are expanding in Europe as a whole.
In the America, a significant offensive against inclusion programs and preferential policies has been brought, frequently with success, to the top legal institutions of the nation. A effort to scrub the history of people of color and narrative from the historical documents is in progress. One of the political figure's initial presidential directives aimed at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the prestigious establishment, alleging that they of a organized and extensive campaign to rewrite our Nation’s history” by depicting the United States “as fundamentally prejudiced”.
In this context, the month represents how little it can be effective if it is limited to either routine organizational acknowledgments, or depoliticized festivities of former accomplishments, rather than confronting the conditions of the present. It also shows how its short period means that it is separated from the more extensive continuous action that is needed. Denise Miller, a professor at University of Greenwich, put it best when she expressed apprehension about the short-term symbolic gestures of the observance. “The problem with taking a tokenistic approach”, she commented, “is that it often means that Black History Month becomes a fleeting performance rather than a agent of progress.”
Determining how to adapt, revise and extend actions for fair treatment and appreciation in such periods of dismay and anxiety is a treacherous thing. There is a urge to just eliminate things like Black History Month entirely, believing they are inadequate for current needs, or are remnants of an era that has been ineffective.
Yet, in spite of all this, Black History Month, and in fact the whole broad system and legacy of activism for racial justice – grassroots Black Lives Matter organisations, diversity equity and inclusion initiatives, and certainly, even commercial engagements – form an foundation that a lot of work has been invested in. It is there not only to deteriorate as the political landscape shifts (and in fact, deteriorates), but to be a living breathing thing.
So what would a fresh vibrant Black History Month appear as? Firstly, it would be more than a single focused period: something that is distributed through the year (as certain organizations are already commencing), sections of its curriculum (particularly around prominent figures of color) integrated into academic syllabi. It would also be a era that does not evade political issues, and allows opportunity for citizens, particularly the younger generation, to express their concerns and stories. What value has basic knowledge of the bygone era when it doesn’t reckon with the present reality of ultra-nationalist gatherings in the public spaces? Establishments who celebrate it should not be pacified with the non-confrontational words of implicit prejudice and alertness to minor insults, but challenged by the dangers that impact society if anti-racism is not approached earnestly. To summarize, Black History Month should be made up-to-date, critical, and adaptive. It could be that an entire name rebrand is in order – Present-Day African Heritage Celebration.
