This commemorative month is a reflection of the current political climate, so how do we revamp it?

We are in Black History Month in the UK, and it feels like it’s time for a re-evaluation. Throughout its history, an event that started out as a celebration and reminder of the past, cultural identity and bonds between international African diaspora communities, has taken on a business-like atmosphere, broadening to incorporate events where African descendants are paid to talk to predominantly white listeners about “unconscious bias” and active solidarity. The demonstrations for racial justice in the 2020s created a surge in the business of showcasing anti-racist commitment. But even that moment has passed. The surge has crested, producing a diluted aftermath of what increasing understanding is for.

The Origins of Black History Month

First commemorated in the United States and Canada, Black History Month was conceived in 1962 as a week dedicated to Negro history by historian of African descent Carter G. Woodson with a week of remembrance and recognition in the February's second week. Black History Month evolved from this campaign and was publicly established in 1970. Currently it is marked not only in the US and Canada in winter, but also in October in the United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands.

The month has transformed since those days, placing less emphasis on the accounts of transatlantic enslavement and fights for racial justice, and more on influential individuals of color in politics, culture, and activism, and broadly celebrating 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 way the celebration is observed is a manifestation of the current political situation. How it develops is a instructive case in how assimilation leads to dismantling: the reshaping of Black History Month has hindered the point of it, which is to address structural and organizational discrimination.

A Disconcerting Period

Little demonstrates how crucial it is to reconsider Black History Month as much as the particular moment in which it occurs this year. In the United Kingdom, a reemerging right-wing in the shape of the Reform party is leading the polls. In the warmer months we saw the biggest extreme right demonstration in British history. Kemi Badenoch, the African descendant in charge of the Conservative party, is a strong critic of the racial justice movement, and we are in a situation where a member of parliament feels emboldened to say that “not seeing any white faces” in certain urban areas is a reason for concern. At the same time, far-right parties are surging in Europe as a whole.

In the US, a massive attack against DEI and affirmative action has been carried, frequently with success, to the supreme judicial bodies of the state. A effort to remove Black history and narrative from the records is in progress. One of Donald Trump's first executive orders focused on the museum of African American legacy, and the renowned cultural organization, alleging that they of a “concerted and widespread effort to change the national past” by representing the nation “as fundamentally prejudiced”.

Given these circumstances, the month symbolises how insufficiently it can be influential if it is confined to either obligatory business commemorations, or stripped of political content commemorations of historical achievements, rather than confronting the situation of the current era. It also reveals how its short period means that it is disconnected from the broader ongoing work that is needed. An academic expert, a prof at an educational institution, put it best when she voiced worries about the short-term symbolic gestures of the celebration. “The difficulty with embracing a superficial method”, she wrote, “is that it typically leads to that Black History Month evolves into a transient display rather than a driver of transformation.”

Rethinking, But Not Jettisoning

Figuring out how to adjust, modify and expand initiatives for racial equality and recognition in such periods of dismay and anxiety is a treacherous thing. There is a inclination to just do away with things like Black History Month altogether, believing they are no longer suitable, or are vestiges of an time that has been ineffective.

However, regardless of the situation, Black History Month, and in fact the complete comprehensive structure and heritage of activism for racial justice – community-based BLM initiatives, inclusion and equity efforts, and certainly, even commercial engagements – constitute an framework that a significant effort has been dedicated to. It is there not only to deteriorate as the situation evolves (and in fact, regresses), but to be a vital organism.

So what would a fresh vibrant Black History Month appear as? Firstly, it would be more than a single focused period: something that is distributed across all seasons (as certain organizations are already beginning to do), sections of its curriculum (particularly around historic Black characters) included in academic syllabi. It would also be a time that does not evade political issues, and provides room for citizens, particularly youth, to share their anxieties and narratives. What value has mere awareness of the history when it fails to address the present reality of ultra-nationalist gatherings in the urban areas? Institutions who celebrate it should not be reassured with the passive language of “unconscious bias” and alertness to minor insults, but confronted with the dangers that impact society if anti-racism is not approached earnestly. To summarize, Black History Month should be made up-to-date, critical, and responsive. Maybe an complete renaming is in order – Contemporary Black History Month.