🔗 Share this article

This is Black History Month in the UK, and it appears it’s time for a rethink. Over the years, an event that was initiated as a festivity and recollection of heritage, traditions and links between global Black communities, has developed a commercial tone, growing to encompass functions where African descendants are paid to speak with predominantly white listeners about “unconscious bias” and “allyship”. The demonstrations for racial justice in the 2020s created a surge in the business of demonstrating racial awareness. But even that moment has passed. The tide has peaked, resulting in a somewhat empty inheritance of what raising awareness is for.

The History of Black History Month

First commemorated in the US and Canada, Black History Month was conceived in 1962 as “Negro History Week” by African American historian Carter G. Woodson with a week of commemoration and observance in the second week of February. Black History Month evolved from this initiative and was officially launched in 1970. Currently it is marked not only in the US and Canada in the second month, but also in October in the UK, Deutschland, Ireland and the Holland.

The period has evolved since that time, focusing less on the accounts of colonial slavery and struggles for equality, and more on notable African descendants in public life, creative fields, and advocacy, and broadly celebrating the impact Black people have made to shape the country. It is in schools where Black History Month is most commonly celebrated, with lectures and artistic activities. But the manner the celebration is observed is a indication of the current political situation. How it develops is a good lesson in how appropriation leads to dismantling: the restructuring of Black History Month has stymied the point of it, which is to confront embedded and established prejudice.

---

A Troubling Time

Little demonstrates how important it is to reconsider Black History Month better than the particular moment in which it falls this year. In the Britain, a revitalized conservative movement in the shape of the Reform organization is ahead in surveys. In the warmer months we saw the biggest extreme right demonstration in British history. Kemi Badenoch, the person of color at the helm of the Tory party, is a strong critic of Black Lives Matter, and we are in a place where a member of parliament feels empowered to declare that the absence of Caucasian individuals in certain urban areas is a reason for concern. At the same time, far-right parties are growing in Europe as a complete entity.

In the United States, a significant offensive against inclusion programs and preferential policies has been carried, frequently with success, to the supreme judicial bodies of the state. A campaign to erase African American heritage and experience from the historical documents is under way. One of the political figure's early administrative commands focused on the museum of African American legacy, and the prestigious establishment, claiming they of a “concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history” by portraying America “as fundamentally prejudiced”.

In this context, the celebration illustrates how minimally it can be effective if it is limited to either dutiful corporate observances, or stripped of political content festivities of contributions in the past, rather than confronting the realities of the contemporary world. It also demonstrates how its restricted time span means that it is disconnected from the broader ongoing work that is needed. A university professor, a professor at a learning establishment, put it best when she voiced worries about the fleeting superficial actions of the celebration. “The issue with embracing a superficial method”, she stated, “is that it frequently results in that Black History Month turns into a brief show rather than a driver of transformation.”

---

Reconsidering, Not Discarding

Establishing how to adjust, modify and expand efforts for fair treatment and appreciation in such times of discouragement and concern is a treacherous thing. There is a temptation to just do away with events including Black History Month completely, believing they are simply not fit for purpose, or are remnants of an time that has not worked.

But despite everything, Black History Month, and in fact the whole broad system and legacy of racial movements – grassroots Black Lives Matter organisations, DEI programs, 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 situation evolves (and in fact, declines), 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 dispersed throughout the annual calendar (as certain organizations are already beginning to do), sections of its curriculum (particularly around historic Black characters) integrated into school curriculums. It would also be a era that does not evade political issues, and provides room for people, particularly the younger generation, to air their fears and experiences. What value has mere awareness of the past when it fails to address the current situation of far-right rallies in the public spaces? Organizations who mark it should not be comforted with the non-confrontational words of “unconscious bias” and awareness of “microaggressions”, but challenged by the dangers that impact society if opposition to discrimination is not treated with importance. Briefly stated, Black History Month should be made contemporary, pressing, and adaptive. Perhaps an total re-identification is required – Contemporary Black History Month.