Black History Month acts as a gauge of the prevailing political atmosphere, so how do we revamp it?

This is Black History Month in the United Kingdom, and it feels like it’s time for a re-evaluation. As time has passed, an celebration that started out as a commemorative event of heritage, traditions and links between international African diaspora communities, has adopted a commercial tone, expanding to include events where Black people are compensated to address predominantly white listeners about “unconscious bias” and active solidarity. The anti-racism rallies of the last decade generated a rise in the industry of displaying cultural sensitivity. But even that moment has passed. The surge has peaked, leaving a sort of hollowed out legacy of what promoting consciousness is for.

The History of Black History Celebration

Originally observed in the US and Canada, Black History Month was created in 1962 as a week dedicated to Negro history by Black scholar Carter G. Woodson with a week of celebration and reflection in the February's second week. Black History Month developed from this campaign and was officially launched in 1970. Currently it is marked not only in the US and Canada in the second month, but also in the tenth month in the United Kingdom, Deutschland, Ireland and the Holland.

The month has evolved since that time, giving reduced attention to the histories of colonial slavery and fights for racial justice, and increasingly on influential individuals of color in public life, creative fields, and advocacy, and widely honoring the input Black people have made to influence the nation. It is in learning environments where Black History Month is most frequently marked, with talks and cultural events. But the method the celebration is observed is a reflection of the political moment. How it progresses is a instructive case in how assimilation leads to dismantling: the reshaping of Black History Month has impeded the point of it, which is to tackle systemic and institutional racism.

A Troubling Time

Little demonstrates how important it is to reevaluate Black History Month more than the particular moment in which it falls this year. In the Britain, a revitalized conservative movement in the form of the Reform organization is ahead in surveys. In the recent season we saw the most significant ultra-conservative gathering in British history. Kemi Badenoch, the African descendant in charge of the Conservative party, is a firm opponent of Black Lives Matter, and we are in a place where a legislator gains confidence to state that a lack of white people in specific city neighborhoods is a cause for alarm. Simultaneously, extreme conservative groups are growing in Europe as a whole.

In the US, a colossal assault against inclusion programs and preferential policies has been carried, frequently with success, to the top legal institutions of the nation. A campaign to scrub African American heritage and narrative from the records is in progress. One of the former president's early administrative commands focused on the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the renowned cultural organization, claiming they of a “concerted and widespread effort to change the national past” by representing the nation “as fundamentally prejudiced”.

Given these circumstances, the celebration represents how insufficiently it can be impactful if it is limited to either obligatory business commemorations, or stripped of political content commemorations of former accomplishments, rather than confronting the realities of the current era. It also reveals how its short period means that it is separated from the wider consistent effort that is necessary. A university professor, a educator at University of Greenwich, articulated it most accurately when she voiced worries about the short-term symbolic gestures of the celebration. “The problem with adopting a symbolic stance”, she wrote, “is that it frequently results in that Black History Month turns into a brief show rather than a catalyst for change.”

Reconsidering, Not Discarding

Establishing how to adjust, modify and expand actions for racial equality and recognition in such periods of dismay and anxiety is a difficult task. There is a temptation to just discontinue observances such as Black History Month entirely, believing they are inadequate for current needs, or are remnants of an era that has been ineffective.

Yet, in spite of all this, Black History Month, and in fact the entire extended network and heritage of racial movements – grassroots Black Lives Matter organisations, inclusion and equity efforts, and yes, even those talks to businesses – constitute an foundation that a considerable labor has been invested in. 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 fresh vibrant Black History Month seem? To begin with, it would be not just one concentrated month: something that is distributed across all seasons (as various establishments are already beginning to do), sections of its curriculum (particularly around prominent figures of color) included in educational programs. It would also be a period that does not avoid political issues, and leaves space for individuals, particularly young people, to express their concerns and stories. What purpose serves simple recognition of the past when it fails to address the contemporary truth of far-right rallies in the street? Institutions who celebrate it should not be pacified with the non-confrontational words of implicit prejudice and sensitivity to “microaggressions”, but faced with the threats that impact society if fight against prejudice is not treated with importance. In short, Black History Month should be made up-to-date, critical, and adaptive. It could be that an entire name rebrand is necessary – Present-Day African Heritage Celebration.