The annual Black History observance is a reflection of the political moment, so in what ways can we modernize it?
This is Black History Month in the UK, and it feels like it’s time for a reassessment. Over the years, an observance that started out as a celebration and reminder of the past, cultural identity and bonds between international African diaspora communities, has adopted a corporate feel, expanding to include functions where Black people are paid to address Caucasian groups about implicit prejudice and “allyship”. The anti-racism rallies of the last decade created a surge in the industry of displaying cultural sensitivity. But even that moment has passed. 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 America and its northern neighbor, Black History Month was conceived in 1962 as “Negro History Week” by Black scholar Carter G. Woodson with multiple days of remembrance and recognition in the middle of February. Black History Month developed from this movement and was formally inaugurated in 1970. Now it is celebrated not only in the US and Canada in the second month, but also in October in the UK, Germany, Éire and the Holland.
The observance has transformed since that time, focusing less on the histories of the slave trade across the Atlantic and fights for racial justice, and greater focus on influential individuals of color in politics, culture, and activism, and extensively acknowledging the impact Black people have made to shape the country. It is in learning environments where Black History Month is most frequently marked, with talks and cultural events. But the method the observance is observed is a reflection of the political moment. How it progresses is a valuable example in how assimilation leads to erosion: the transformation of Black History Month has impeded the point of it, which is to tackle structural and organizational discrimination.
A Disconcerting Period
Few things illustrate how critical it is to rethink 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 party is top in opinion ratings. In the summer we witnessed the biggest extreme right demonstration in the history of Britain. Kemi Badenoch, the Black leader of the right-wing political group, is a strong critic of Black Lives Matter, and we are in a situation where a legislator feels empowered to state that the absence of Caucasian individuals in parts of a city is a reason for concern. Simultaneously, ultra-nationalist movements are surging in Europe as a whole.
In the America, a significant offensive against inclusion programs and preferential policies has been carried, frequently with success, to the top legal institutions of the state. A drive to scrub African American heritage and experience from the archives is in progress. One of Donald Trump's first executive orders aimed at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the Smithsonian Institution, alleging that they of a coordinated and broad attempt to rewrite our Nation’s history” by representing the nation “as inherently racist”.
Given these circumstances, the celebration represents how insufficiently it can be effective if it is limited to either dutiful corporate observances, or stripped of political content celebrations of historical achievements, rather than confronting the conditions of the current era. It also shows how its limited duration means that it is separated from the more extensive continuous action that is required. A university professor, a prof at an educational institution, put it best when she expressed apprehension about the fleeting superficial actions of the month. “The difficulty with taking a tokenistic approach”, she wrote, “is that it frequently results in that Black History Month evolves into a brief show rather than a agent of progress.”
Reevaluating, Not Abandoning
Determining how to adapt, revise and extend efforts for racial equality and recognition in such periods of dismay and anxiety is a treacherous thing. There is a urge to just discontinue events including Black History Month completely, assuming they are simply not fit for purpose, or are relics of an time that has failed to deliver.
But despite everything, 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 – represent an framework that a significant effort has gone into. It is there not merely to decline as the politics moves on (and in fact, deteriorates), but to be a living breathing thing.
So what would a new dynamic Black History Month seem? Firstly, it would be more than a single focused period: something that is dispersed across all seasons (as certain organizations are already commencing), parts of its content (particularly around notable African descendants) integrated into educational programs. It would also be a era that does not avoid politics, and leaves space for people, particularly youth, to air their fears and experiences. What use is basic knowledge of the past when it doesn’t reckon with the current situation of extreme conservative demonstrations in the urban areas? Organizations who celebrate it should not be pacified with the neutral terminology of implicit prejudice and sensitivity to minor insults, but faced with the dangers that impact society if anti-racism is not approached earnestly. Briefly stated, Black History Month should be made up-to-date, urgent, and responsive. It could be that an total re-identification is in order – Contemporary Black History Month.
