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We are in Black History Month in the UK, and it seems it’s time for a re-evaluation. As time has passed, an observance that was initiated as a commemorative event of history, culture and the connections between global Black communities, has developed a business-like atmosphere, broadening to incorporate gatherings where African descendants are remunerated to address predominantly white listeners about “unconscious bias” and “allyship”. The 2020s Black Lives Matter protests sparked an increase in the enterprise of displaying cultural sensitivity. Yet, that phase is now over. The tide has reached its height, producing a diluted aftermath of what raising awareness is for.

The Origins of Black History Observance

Originally observed in the US and Canada, Black History Month was established in 1962 as a week dedicated to Negro history by Black scholar Carter G. Woodson with multiple days of remembrance and recognition in the middle of February. Black History Month developed from this initiative and was officially launched in 1970. Currently it is marked not only in the US and Canada in winter, but also in autumn in the United Kingdom, the Federal Republic of Germany, Ireland and the Holland.

The month has evolved since those days, focusing less on the histories of transatlantic enslavement and struggles for equality, and more on influential individuals of color in politics, culture, and activism, and widely honoring the input Black people have made to mold society. It is in schools where Black History Month is most commonly celebrated, with talks and cultural events. But the method the celebration is commemorated is a manifestation of the political moment. How it progresses is a good lesson in how appropriation leads to dismantling: the restructuring of Black History Month has hindered the objective of it, which is to address embedded and established prejudice.

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A Jarring Moment

Few things illustrate how important it is to rethink Black History Month better than the particular moment in which it takes place this year. In the Britain, a revitalized conservative movement in the shape of the Reform party is top in opinion ratings. In the summer we witnessed the largest far-right rally in the history of Britain. the Conservative leader, the person of color at the helm of the Conservative party, is a staunch adversary of Black Lives Matter, and we are in a position where a legislator feels emboldened to declare that the absence of Caucasian individuals in specific city neighborhoods is a cause for alarm. At the same time, far-right parties are surging in the EU as a whole.

In the United States, a massive attack against inclusion programs and preferential policies has been carried, repeatedly with positive outcomes, to the supreme judicial bodies of the nation. A campaign to erase the history of people of color and narrative from the archives is under way. One of the former president's first executive orders focused on the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the prestigious establishment, claiming they of a “concerted and widespread effort to alter the country's historical narrative” by portraying America “as inherently racist”.

In this context, the observance symbolises how insufficiently it can be effective if it is confined to either routine organizational acknowledgments, or depoliticized celebrations of former accomplishments, rather than confronting the realities of the contemporary world. It also reveals how its restricted time span means that it is separated from the more extensive continuous action that is needed. An academic expert, a prof at University of Greenwich, put it best when she voiced worries about the fleeting superficial actions of the month. “The difficulty with embracing a superficial method”, she stated, “is that it typically leads to that Black History Month evolves into a brief show rather than a agent of progress.”

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Rethinking, But Not Jettisoning

Determining how to adapt, revise and extend actions for racial equality and recognition in such moments of dejection and worry is a difficult task. There is a temptation to just eliminate observances such as Black History Month altogether, assuming they are simply not fit for purpose, 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, inclusion and equity efforts, and indeed, including corporate presentations – constitute an foundation that a significant effort has gone into. It is there not just to decay as the political landscape shifts (and in fact, regresses), but to be a living breathing thing.

So what would a fresh vibrant Black History Month appear as? Firstly, it would be extended beyond a brief observance: something that is dispersed throughout the annual calendar (as some institutions are already starting to implement), parts of its content (particularly around prominent figures of color) integrated into academic syllabi. It would also be a era that does not avoid politics, and leaves space for people, particularly young people, to air their fears and experiences. What use is mere awareness of the history when it doesn’t reckon with the present reality of ultra-nationalist gatherings in the public spaces? Institutions who observe it should not be pacified with the neutral terminology of implicit prejudice and sensitivity to minor insults, but challenged by the threats that face all if fight against prejudice is not treated with importance. To summarize, Black History Month should be made up-to-date, urgent, and reactive. Perhaps an total re-identification is necessary – Present-Day African Heritage Celebration.