🔗 Share this article

We are in Black History Month in the UK, and it feels like it’s time for a reassessment. As time has passed, an event that began as a festivity and recollection of heritage, traditions and links between international African diaspora communities, has adopted a corporate feel, expanding to include functions where individuals of African heritage are remunerated to talk to predominantly white listeners about implicit prejudice and active solidarity. The 2020s Black Lives Matter protests created a surge in the business of displaying cultural sensitivity. But even that moment has passed. The tide has peaked, leaving a sort of hollowed out legacy of what increasing understanding is for.

The History of Black History Observance

Originally observed in the US and Canada, Black History Month was created in 1962 as “Negro History Week” by historian of African descent Carter G. Woodson with a week of remembrance and recognition in the second week of February. Black History Month developed from this initiative and was publicly established in 1970. Today it is observed not only in the North America in the second month, but also in October in the UK, Deutschland, Éire and the Netherlands.

The month has transformed since its inception, placing less emphasis on the histories of the slave trade across the Atlantic and fights for racial justice, and more on notable African descendants in politics, culture, and activism, and extensively acknowledging the impact Black people have made to influence the nation. It is in schools where Black History Month is most regularly observed, with discussions and heritage festivities. But the manner the observance is celebrated is a indication of the political moment. How it develops is a good lesson in how assimilation leads to erosion: the reshaping of Black History Month has impeded the point of it, which is to address embedded and established prejudice.

---

A Disconcerting Period

Hardly anything shows how crucial it is to reconsider Black History Month as much as the particular moment in which it falls this year. In the Britain, a reemerging right-wing in the guise of the Reform organization is ahead in surveys. In the warmer months we witnessed the largest far-right rally in British history. the Conservative leader, the Black leader of the Conservative party, is a staunch adversary of Black Lives Matter, and we are in a position where a member of parliament feels emboldened to declare that a lack of white people in certain urban areas is a reason for concern. At the same time, extreme conservative groups are expanding in the EU as a entirety.

In the United States, a massive attack against DEI and affirmative action has been taken, frequently with success, to the supreme judicial bodies of the nation. A effort to remove Black history and narrative from the historical documents is ongoing. One of the political figure's initial presidential directives focused on the institution dedicated to Black heritage, and the Smithsonian Institution, accusing them of a organized and extensive campaign to change the national past” by depicting the United States “as fundamentally prejudiced”.

Against this backdrop, the celebration symbolises how insufficiently it can be influential if it is confined to either obligatory business commemorations, or depoliticized festivities of contributions in the past, rather than challenging the situation of the present. It also demonstrates how its short period means that it is separated from the broader ongoing work that is necessary. Denise Miller, a educator at University of Greenwich, expressed it perfectly when she voiced worries about the temporary “tokenism” of the celebration. “The problem with embracing a superficial method”, she commented, “is that it frequently results in that Black History Month turns into a brief show rather than a agent of progress.”

---

Reevaluating, Not Abandoning

Determining how to adjust, modify and expand efforts for fair treatment and appreciation in such times of discouragement and concern is a difficult task. There is a temptation to just do away with things like Black History Month entirely, assuming they are no longer suitable, or are remnants of an period that has failed to deliver.

But despite everything, Black History Month, and in fact the whole broad system and heritage of campaigns for equality – community-based BLM initiatives, DEI programs, and indeed, including corporate presentations – constitute an infrastructure that a considerable labor has gone into. It is there not only to deteriorate as the situation evolves (and in fact, regresses), but to be a living breathing thing.

So what would a contemporary active Black History Month look like? Well, first, it would be not just one concentrated month: something that is distributed across all seasons (as some institutions are already beginning to do), parts of its content (particularly around historic Black characters) integrated into academic syllabi. It would also be a time that does not evade political issues, and allows opportunity for individuals, particularly youth, to share their anxieties and narratives. What purpose serves mere awareness of the history when it fails to address the current situation of extreme conservative demonstrations in the urban areas? Institutions who observe it should not be pacified with the neutral terminology of hidden discrimination and alertness to minor insults, but faced with the risks that impact society if fight against prejudice is not approached earnestly. In short, Black History Month should be made current, urgent, and responsive. It could be that an total re-identification is required – Contemporary Black History Month.