🔗 Share this article

We are in Black History Month in the Britain, and it appears it’s time for a re-evaluation. Over the years, an event that was initiated as a celebration and reminder of the past, cultural identity and bonds between Black populations worldwide, has developed a commercial tone, expanding to include functions where African descendants are compensated to talk to predominantly white listeners about “unconscious bias” and “allyship”. The 2020s Black Lives Matter protests generated a rise in the business of demonstrating racial awareness. However, that period has concluded. The wave has reached its height, leaving a sort of hollowed out legacy of what promoting consciousness is for.

The Origins of Black History Observance

First commemorated in the America and its northern neighbor, Black History Month was created in 1962 as “Negro History Week” by African American historian Carter G. Woodson with a week of celebration and reflection in the middle of February. Black History Month grew out of this movement and was formally inaugurated in 1970. Now it is celebrated not only in the US and Canada in February, but also in October in the United Kingdom, the Federal Republic of Germany, the Republic of Ireland and the Netherlands.

The month has evolved since those days, placing less emphasis on the histories of transatlantic enslavement and fights for racial justice, and more on influential individuals of color in politics, culture, and activism, and extensively acknowledging the input Black people have made to mold society. It is in schools where Black History Month is most commonly celebrated, with discussions and heritage festivities. But the way the celebration is observed is a manifestation of the contemporary political context. How it evolves is a instructive case in how appropriation leads to weakening: the restructuring of Black History Month has stymied the purpose of it, which is to address systemic and institutional racism.

---

A Jarring Moment

Few things illustrate how important it is to reevaluate Black History Month more than the particular moment in which it occurs this year. In the Britain, a revitalized conservative movement in the form of the Reform organization is top in opinion ratings. In the warmer months we witnessed the most significant ultra-conservative gathering in British history. Kemi Badenoch, the person of color at the helm of the Conservative party, is a firm opponent of Black Lives Matter, and we are in a place where a legislator feels emboldened to declare that “not seeing any white faces” in parts of a city is a source of worry. Simultaneously, ultra-nationalist movements are surging in the European continent as a entirety.

In the United States, a colossal assault against DEI and affirmative action has been carried, often successfully, to the highest courts of the country. A drive to erase African American heritage and experience from the records is ongoing. One of the political figure's early administrative commands aimed at the museum of African American legacy, and the prestigious establishment, accusing them of a coordinated and broad attempt to rewrite our Nation’s history” by depicting the United States “as naturally discriminatory”.

Given these circumstances, the observance symbolises how minimally it can be effective if it is confined to either dutiful corporate observances, or stripped of political content festivities of former accomplishments, rather than confronting the situation of the contemporary world. It also demonstrates how its short period means that it is disconnected from the wider consistent effort that is required. An academic expert, a professor at an educational institution, put it best when she voiced worries about the short-term symbolic gestures of the month. “The problem with taking a tokenistic approach”, she commented, “is that it frequently results in that Black History Month becomes a transient display rather than a catalyst for change.”

---

Rethinking, But Not Jettisoning

Establishing how to adapt, revise and extend initiatives for equal rights and acknowledgment in such moments of dejection and worry is a treacherous thing. There is a inclination to just do away with events including Black History Month entirely, thinking they are inadequate for current needs, or are vestiges of an period that has been ineffective.

But despite everything, Black History Month, and in fact the whole broad system and legacy of campaigns for equality – community-based BLM initiatives, diversity equity and inclusion initiatives, and certainly, even commercial engagements – constitute an infrastructure that a lot of work has gone into. It is there not merely to decline as the politics moves on (and in fact, regresses), but to be a dynamic entity.

So what would a contemporary active Black History Month seem? Well, first, it would be more than a single focused period: something that is distributed across all seasons (as certain organizations 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 provides room for people, particularly youth, to express their concerns and stories. What use is mere awareness of the bygone era when it doesn’t reckon with the current situation of far-right rallies in the street? Institutions who mark it should not be comforted with the neutral terminology of “unconscious bias” and awareness of subtle slights, but challenged by the threats that face all if anti-racism is not approached earnestly. To summarize, Black History Month should be made current, pressing, and adaptive. It could be that an total re-identification is in order – Contemporary Black History Month.