🔗 Share this article

It's Black History Month in the Britain, and it appears it’s time for a rethink. As time has passed, an celebration that started out as a celebration and reminder of heritage, traditions and links between international African diaspora communities, has developed a commercial tone, growing to encompass gatherings where Black people are compensated to address predominantly white listeners about “unconscious bias” and supportive partnership. The 2020s Black Lives Matter protests sparked an increase in the business of displaying cultural sensitivity. But even that moment has passed. The surge 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 conceived in 1962 as a week dedicated to Negro history by African American historian Carter G. Woodson with multiple days of celebration and reflection in the February's second week. Black History Month evolved from this campaign and was officially launched in 1970. Today it is observed not only in the North America in winter, but also in October in the UK, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands.

The period has developed since its inception, focusing less on the narratives of the slave trade across the Atlantic and fights for racial justice, and more on influential individuals of color in public life, creative fields, and advocacy, and extensively acknowledging the input Black people have made to shape the country. It is in schools where Black History Month is most frequently marked, with talks and cultural events. But the way the observance is observed is a reflection of the contemporary political context. How it develops is a valuable example in how appropriation leads to dismantling: the reshaping of Black History Month has hindered the objective of it, which is to confront embedded and established prejudice.

---

A Jarring Moment

Little demonstrates how important it is to reevaluate Black History Month better than the particular moment in which it takes place this year. In the Britain, a revitalized conservative movement in the form of the Reform organization is leading the polls. In the warmer months we observed the biggest extreme right demonstration in the UK's past. a prominent political figure, the Black leader of the Tory party, is a strong critic of Black Lives Matter, and we are in a situation where a member of parliament feels empowered to say that the absence of Caucasian individuals in certain urban areas is a cause for alarm. Meanwhile, far-right parties are expanding in the European continent as a entirety.

In the US, a massive attack against inclusion programs and preferential policies has been taken, often successfully, to the highest courts of the state. A effort to erase African American heritage and experience from the archives is in progress. One of the former president's first executive orders aimed at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the prestigious establishment, alleging that they of a “concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history” by depicting the United States “as naturally discriminatory”.

In this context, the celebration illustrates how insufficiently it can be impactful if it is confined to either dutiful corporate observances, or stripped of political content commemorations of former accomplishments, rather than addressing the situation of the contemporary world. It also shows how its short period means that it is detached from the wider consistent effort that is necessary. An academic expert, a educator at a learning establishment, put it best when she expressed apprehension about the fleeting superficial actions of the observance. “The difficulty with adopting a symbolic stance”, she stated, “is that it typically leads to that Black History Month becomes a fleeting performance rather than a agent of progress.”

---

Reconsidering, Not Discarding

Establishing how to adjust, modify and expand initiatives for equal rights and acknowledgment in such periods of dismay and anxiety is a treacherous thing. There is a temptation to just do away with things like Black History Month entirely, thinking they are inadequate for current needs, or are relics of an time that has been ineffective.

Yet, in spite of all this, Black History Month, and in fact the complete comprehensive structure and tradition of activism for racial justice – community-based BLM initiatives, DEI programs, and yes, even those talks to businesses – represent an foundation that a significant effort has been invested in. It is there not only to deteriorate as the politics moves on (and in fact, deteriorates), but to be a living breathing thing.

So what would a contemporary active Black History Month look like? To begin with, it would be extended beyond a brief observance: something that is dispersed throughout the annual calendar (as various establishments are already commencing), parts of its content (particularly around prominent figures of color) incorporated into school curriculums. It would also be a time that does not avoid politics, and allows opportunity for individuals, particularly the younger generation, to express their concerns and stories. What purpose serves simple recognition of the history when it ignores the current situation of extreme conservative demonstrations in the street? Institutions who observe it should not be pacified with the non-confrontational words of implicit prejudice and alertness to “microaggressions”, but challenged by the risks that face all if fight against prejudice is not approached earnestly. To summarize, Black History Month should be made current, urgent, and adaptive. Maybe an entire name rebrand is in order – Black History is Now Month.