🔗 Share this article

It's Black History Month in the United Kingdom, and it feels like it’s time for a rethink. As time has passed, an event that was initiated as a celebration and reminder of the past, cultural identity and bonds between global Black communities, has adopted a commercial tone, broadening to incorporate gatherings where individuals of African heritage are remunerated to address Caucasian groups about hidden biases and “allyship”. The 2020s Black Lives Matter protests generated a rise in the industry of demonstrating racial awareness. Yet, that phase is now over. The wave has peaked, resulting in a somewhat empty inheritance of what raising awareness is for.

The Background of Black History Celebration

First commemorated in the America and its northern neighbor, Black History Month was established in 1962 as a week dedicated to Negro history by African American historian Carter G. Woodson with seven days of remembrance and recognition in the middle of February. Black History Month evolved from this campaign and was officially launched in 1970. Now it is celebrated not only in the US and Canada in February, but also in autumn in the Britain, the Federal Republic of Germany, Éire and the Netherlands.

The month has developed since its inception, placing less emphasis on the histories of the slave trade across the Atlantic and fights for racial justice, and greater focus on notable African descendants in government, the arts, and social movements, and extensively acknowledging the contribution Black people have made to influence the nation. It is in schools where Black History Month is most frequently marked, with talks and cultural events. But the method the month is celebrated is a reflection of the contemporary political context. How it develops is a instructive case in how appropriation leads to dismantling: the transformation of Black History Month has stymied the point of it, which is to address embedded and established prejudice.

---

A Troubling Time

Little demonstrates how important it is to reevaluate Black History Month more than the specific period in which it occurs this year. In the United Kingdom, a revitalized conservative movement in the shape of the Reform organization is top in opinion ratings. In the recent season 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 firm opponent of the racial justice movement, and we are in a situation where a legislator feels emboldened to say that a lack of white people in specific city neighborhoods is a cause for alarm. Meanwhile, far-right parties are growing in Europe as a complete entity.

In the United States, a colossal assault against inclusion programs and preferential policies has been taken, often successfully, to the top legal institutions of the nation. A campaign to scrub the history of people of color and narrative from the historical documents is ongoing. One of the former president's first executive orders focused on the museum of African American legacy, and the renowned cultural organization, claiming they of a coordinated and broad attempt to alter the country's historical narrative” by representing the nation “as inherently racist”.

Against this backdrop, the month symbolises how minimally it can be influential if it is confined to either obligatory business commemorations, or stripped of political content celebrations of contributions in the past, rather than addressing the realities of the present. It also reveals how its short period means that it is separated from the more extensive continuous action that is needed. An academic expert, a educator at University of Greenwich, expressed it perfectly when she raised concerns about the temporary “tokenism” of the celebration. “The difficulty with taking a tokenistic approach”, she stated, “is that it often means that Black History Month evolves into a transient display rather than a agent of progress.”

---

Reconsidering, Not Discarding

Determining how to adjust, modify and expand initiatives for equal rights and acknowledgment in such periods of dismay and anxiety is a challenging endeavor. There is a inclination to just discontinue observances such as Black History Month entirely, thinking they are no longer suitable, or are relics of an period 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 yes, even those talks to businesses – form an foundation that a significant effort has been dedicated to. It is there not just to decay as the political landscape shifts (and in fact, deteriorates), 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 some institutions are already starting to implement), parts of its content (particularly around historic Black characters) included in school curriculums. It would also be a time that does not evade politics, and allows opportunity for people, particularly young people, to express their concerns and stories. What value has basic knowledge of the bygone era when it ignores the current situation of far-right rallies in the public spaces? Organizations who mark it should not be reassured with the passive language of implicit prejudice and alertness to subtle slights, but confronted with the risks that affect everyone if fight against prejudice is not taken seriously. Briefly stated, Black History Month should be made contemporary, critical, and reactive. It could be that an total re-identification is in order – Present-Day African Heritage Celebration.