🔗 Share this article

This is Black History Month in the UK, and it feels like it’s time for a rethink. Throughout its history, an event that was initiated as a festivity and recollection of heritage, traditions and links between global Black communities, has taken on a commercial tone, broadening to incorporate events where African descendants are paid to address Caucasian groups about implicit prejudice and active solidarity. The 2020s Black Lives Matter protests sparked an increase in the enterprise of displaying cultural sensitivity. Yet, that phase is now over. The wave has reached its height, leaving a sort of hollowed out legacy of what increasing understanding is for.

The Origins of Black History Celebration

First commemorated 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 February's second week. Black History Month evolved from this movement and was formally inaugurated in 1970. Now it is celebrated not only in the North America in winter, but also in October in the UK, Germany, the Republic of Ireland and the the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

The observance has transformed since its inception, focusing less on the histories of colonial slavery and civil rights battles, and more on prominent Black figures in government, the arts, and social movements, and broadly celebrating the contribution Black people have made to mold society. It is in learning environments where Black History Month is most frequently marked, with lectures and artistic activities. But the method the month is celebrated is a indication of the current political situation. How it develops is a good lesson in how co-option leads to dismantling: the transformation of Black History Month has stymied the purpose of it, which is to confront systemic and institutional racism.

---

A Disconcerting Period

Hardly anything shows how crucial it is to reevaluate Black History Month more than the specific period in which it falls this year. In the UK, a reemerging right-wing in the form of the Reform political group is leading the polls. In the summer we witnessed the most significant ultra-conservative gathering in the history of Britain. the Conservative leader, 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 elected representative feels emboldened to state that a lack of white people in parts of a city is a source of worry. At the same time, far-right parties are growing in the EU as a whole.

In the US, a massive attack against diversity initiatives and positive discrimination has been brought, often successfully, to the supreme judicial bodies of the country. A drive to scrub Black history and narrative from the records is in progress. One of the political figure's initial presidential directives aimed at the museum of African American legacy, and the renowned cultural organization, accusing them of a organized and extensive campaign to change the national past” by portraying America “as fundamentally prejudiced”.

Given these circumstances, the observance illustrates how insufficiently it can be influential if it is restricted to either obligatory business commemorations, or politically neutered celebrations of contributions in the past, rather than confronting the realities of the present. It also demonstrates how its restricted time span means that it is separated from the more extensive continuous action that is necessary. An academic expert, a educator at University of Greenwich, articulated it most accurately when she raised concerns about the fleeting superficial actions of the observance. “The difficulty with embracing a superficial method”, she wrote, “is that it typically leads to that Black History Month turns into a fleeting performance rather than a agent of progress.”

---

Reevaluating, Not Abandoning

Establishing how to alter, change and broaden initiatives for racial equality and recognition in such moments of dejection and worry is a treacherous thing. There is a temptation to just eliminate observances such as Black History Month altogether, thinking they are no longer suitable, or are vestiges of an time that has been ineffective.

Yet, in spite of all this, Black History Month, and in fact the whole broad system and tradition of racial movements – grassroots Black Lives Matter organisations, inclusion and equity efforts, and yes, even those talks to businesses – form an foundation that a considerable labor has gone into. It is there not just to decay as the politics moves on (and in fact, declines), but to be a dynamic entity.

So what would a new dynamic Black History Month seem? Well, first, it would be extended beyond a brief observance: something that is distributed through the year (as certain organizations are already commencing), parts of its content (particularly around prominent figures of color) included in school curriculums. It would also be a era that does not avoid governmental matters, and leaves space for individuals, particularly youth, to express their concerns and stories. What purpose serves basic knowledge of the history when it ignores the current situation of ultra-nationalist gatherings in the urban areas? Organizations who mark it should not be pacified with the neutral terminology of implicit prejudice and alertness to “microaggressions”, but challenged by the dangers that impact society if anti-racism is not taken seriously. To summarize, Black History Month should be made current, pressing, and responsive. Maybe an total re-identification is in order – Black History is Now Month.