The annual Black History observance serves as a mirror of the prevailing political atmosphere, so what steps can we take to refresh it?
It's Black History Month in the United Kingdom, and it appears it’s time for a re-evaluation. As time has passed, an observance that was initiated as a festivity and recollection of history, culture and the connections between global Black communities, has adopted a corporate feel, growing to encompass functions where African descendants are remunerated to address white audiences about “unconscious bias” and active solidarity. The anti-racism rallies of the last decade generated a rise in the industry of demonstrating racial awareness. Yet, that phase is now over. The surge has reached its height, leaving a sort of hollowed out legacy of what increasing understanding is for.
The Origins of Black History Month
Initially celebrated in the US and Canada, Black History Month was established 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 second week of February. Black History Month evolved from this movement and was officially launched in 1970. Today it is observed not only in the North America in February, but also in the tenth month in the United Kingdom, Deutschland, the Republic of Ireland and the Netherlands.
The observance has evolved since that time, giving reduced attention to the accounts of the slave trade across the Atlantic and fights for racial justice, and more on notable African descendants in politics, culture, and activism, and broadly celebrating the impact Black people have made to shape the country. It is in educational institutions where Black History Month is most commonly celebrated, with lectures and artistic activities. But the method the observance is observed is a reflection of the political moment. How it develops is a good lesson in how co-option leads to dismantling: the transformation of Black History Month has impeded the objective of it, which is to tackle structural and organizational discrimination.
A Troubling Time
Hardly anything shows how important it is to rethink Black History Month more than the current time in which it takes place this year. In the UK, a resurgent right in the guise of the Reform political group is top in opinion ratings. In the summer we observed the biggest extreme right demonstration in the UK's past. Kemi Badenoch, the African descendant in charge of the Tory party, is a strong critic of the racial justice movement, and we are in a place where a member of parliament feels empowered to say that “not seeing any white faces” in specific city neighborhoods is a source of worry. Meanwhile, ultra-nationalist movements are expanding in Europe as a entirety.
In the United States, a colossal assault against inclusion programs and preferential policies has been taken, repeatedly with positive outcomes, to the top legal institutions of the nation. A campaign to scrub the history of people of color and narrative from the archives is in progress. One of the former president's early administrative commands targeted the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the Smithsonian Institution, claiming they of a “concerted and widespread effort to change the national past” by representing the nation “as naturally discriminatory”.
Given these circumstances, the observance illustrates how minimally it can be influential if it is restricted to either obligatory business commemorations, or stripped of political content commemorations of contributions in the past, rather than challenging the realities of the present. It also reveals how its short period means that it is separated from the broader ongoing work that is needed. An academic expert, a professor at University of Greenwich, expressed it perfectly when she voiced worries about the fleeting superficial actions of the celebration. “The difficulty with adopting a symbolic stance”, she commented, “is that it typically leads to that Black History Month evolves into a fleeting performance rather than a agent of progress.”
Rethinking, But Not Jettisoning
Figuring out how to adapt, revise and extend efforts for equal rights and acknowledgment in such moments of dejection and worry is a difficult task. There is a temptation to just discontinue events including Black History Month altogether, assuming they are no longer suitable, or are remnants of an time that has not worked.
However, regardless of the situation, Black History Month, and in fact the whole broad system and tradition of racial movements – community-based BLM initiatives, inclusion and equity efforts, and indeed, including corporate presentations – constitute an foundation that a lot of work has gone into. It is there not only to deteriorate as the political landscape shifts (and in fact, regresses), but to be a living breathing thing.
So what would a fresh vibrant Black History Month look like? To begin with, it would be more than a single focused period: something that is distributed throughout the annual calendar (as some institutions are already starting to implement), sections of its curriculum (particularly around prominent figures of color) integrated into academic syllabi. It would also be a period that does not avoid governmental matters, and leaves space for citizens, particularly the younger generation, to air their fears and experiences. What use is simple recognition of the history when it fails to address the present reality of far-right rallies in the street? Organizations who observe it should not be pacified with the passive language of “unconscious bias” and awareness of minor insults, but challenged by the risks that face all if opposition to discrimination is not taken seriously. Briefly stated, Black History Month should be made current, pressing, and reactive. It could be that an entire name rebrand is in order – Present-Day African Heritage Celebration.
