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We are in Black History Month in the Britain, and it appears it’s time for a re-evaluation. As time has passed, an event that started out as a festivity and recollection of history, culture and the connections between Black populations worldwide, has developed a commercial tone, broadening to incorporate functions where Black people are remunerated to address Caucasian groups about implicit prejudice and supportive partnership. The 2020s Black Lives Matter protests generated a rise in the business of displaying cultural sensitivity. But even that moment has passed. The surge has reached its height, producing a diluted aftermath of what increasing understanding is for.

The History of Black History Month

First commemorated in the United States and Canada, Black History Month was created in 1962 as an observance of African American heritage by African American historian Carter G. Woodson with multiple days of remembrance and recognition in the second week of February. Black History Month evolved from this movement and was formally inaugurated in 1970. Currently it is marked not only in the North America in February, but also in October in the Britain, the Federal Republic of Germany, Éire and the the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

The observance has developed since its inception, giving reduced attention to the accounts of the slave trade across the Atlantic and fights for racial justice, and greater focus on prominent Black figures in government, the arts, and social movements, and extensively acknowledging the impact Black people have made to influence the nation. It is in educational institutions where Black History Month is most frequently marked, with lectures and artistic activities. But the method the month is celebrated is a indication of the current political situation. How it evolves is a good lesson in how appropriation leads to dismantling: the transformation of Black History Month has impeded the objective of it, which is to tackle embedded and established prejudice.

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A Jarring Moment

Few things illustrate how critical it is to reevaluate Black History Month better than the particular moment in which it occurs this year. In the United Kingdom, a resurgent right in the guise of the Reform party is leading the polls. In the summer we witnessed the most significant ultra-conservative gathering in the UK's past. the Conservative leader, the Black leader of the right-wing political group, is a staunch adversary of the racial justice movement, and we are in a place where a member of parliament feels empowered to say that the absence of Caucasian individuals in certain urban areas is a reason for concern. At the same time, far-right parties are expanding in the EU as a complete entity.

In the US, a massive attack against diversity initiatives and positive discrimination has been carried, frequently with success, to the supreme judicial bodies of the country. A drive to scrub African American heritage and experience from the records is ongoing. One of Donald Trump's initial presidential directives focused on the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the prestigious establishment, alleging that they of a coordinated and broad attempt to rewrite our Nation’s history” by depicting the United States “as naturally discriminatory”.

Given these circumstances, the observance symbolises how little it can be influential if it is limited to either obligatory business commemorations, or stripped of political content commemorations of historical achievements, rather than confronting the conditions of the present. It also reveals how its restricted time span means that it is disconnected from the broader ongoing work that is necessary. Denise Miller, a educator at University of Greenwich, expressed it perfectly when she expressed apprehension about the temporary “tokenism” of the observance. “The problem with taking a tokenistic approach”, she wrote, “is that it often means that Black History Month becomes a brief show rather than a agent of progress.”

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Reevaluating, Not Abandoning

Figuring out how to adjust, modify and expand actions for equal rights and acknowledgment in such periods of dismay and anxiety is a challenging endeavor. There is a temptation to just do away with events including Black History Month completely, assuming they are simply not fit for purpose, or are vestiges of an time that has been ineffective.

But despite everything, Black History Month, and in fact the whole broad system and tradition of activism for racial justice – grassroots Black Lives Matter organisations, DEI programs, and yes, even those talks to businesses – represent an foundation that a lot of work has been dedicated to. It is there not only to deteriorate as the situation evolves (and in fact, declines), but to be a dynamic entity.

So what would a contemporary active Black History Month look like? Firstly, it would be more than a single focused period: something that is distributed through the year (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 era that does not evade political issues, and allows opportunity for people, particularly youth, to share their anxieties and narratives. What value has simple recognition of the history when it ignores the contemporary truth of ultra-nationalist gatherings in the street? Organizations who mark it should not be comforted with the passive language of “unconscious bias” and awareness of subtle slights, but challenged by the threats that face all if fight against prejudice is not treated with importance. In short, Black History Month should be made contemporary, critical, and adaptive. Maybe an complete renaming is necessary – Contemporary Black History Month.