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This is Black History Month in the United Kingdom, and it feels like it’s time for a reassessment. Throughout its history, an event that began as a commemorative event of the past, cultural identity and bonds between global Black communities, has taken on a commercial tone, broadening to incorporate events where African descendants are paid to speak with predominantly white listeners about “unconscious bias” and “allyship”. The anti-racism rallies of the last decade created a surge in the business of demonstrating racial awareness. Yet, that phase is now over. The wave has reached its height, resulting in a somewhat empty inheritance of what increasing understanding is for.

The Background of Black History Observance

Originally observed in the America and its northern neighbor, Black History Month was created in 1962 as a week dedicated to Negro history by Black scholar Carter G. Woodson with seven days of celebration and reflection in the middle of February. Black History Month grew out of this movement and was publicly established in 1970. Today it is observed not only in the North America in winter, but also in the tenth month in the Britain, Germany, the Republic of Ireland and the Netherlands.

The observance has developed since its inception, focusing less on the accounts of transatlantic enslavement and civil rights battles, and increasingly on influential individuals of color in government, the arts, and social movements, and broadly celebrating the input Black people have made to influence the nation. It is in learning environments where Black History Month is most regularly observed, with lectures and artistic activities. But the way the celebration is celebrated is a manifestation of the political moment. How it evolves is a valuable example in how co-option leads to erosion: the transformation of Black History Month has impeded the objective of it, which is to address systemic and institutional racism.

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A Troubling Time

Little demonstrates how crucial it is to rethink Black History Month better than the specific period in which it falls this year. In the United Kingdom, a reemerging right-wing in the shape of the Reform party is ahead in surveys. In the recent season we saw the biggest extreme right demonstration in the UK's past. Kemi Badenoch, the African descendant in charge of the Tory party, is a firm opponent of Black Lives Matter, and we are in a position where a elected representative feels emboldened to say that the absence of Caucasian individuals in parts of a city is a reason for concern. Simultaneously, far-right parties are growing in Europe as a complete entity.

In the US, a colossal assault against inclusion programs and preferential policies has been brought, frequently with success, to the supreme judicial bodies of the nation. A campaign to scrub African American heritage and experience from the records is in progress. One of the political figure's first executive orders targeted 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 representing the nation “as fundamentally prejudiced”.

Against this backdrop, the month symbolises how minimally it can be influential if it is restricted to either routine organizational acknowledgments, or stripped of political content commemorations of contributions in the past, rather than confronting the realities of the present. It also reveals how its limited duration means that it is separated from the more extensive continuous action that is necessary. A university professor, a educator at University of Greenwich, expressed it perfectly when she raised concerns about the fleeting superficial actions of the observance. “The problem with adopting a symbolic stance”, she stated, “is that it frequently results in that Black History Month evolves into a transient display rather than a driver of transformation.”

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Reevaluating, Not Abandoning

Establishing how to adapt, revise and extend efforts for racial equality and recognition in such moments of dejection and worry is a difficult task. There is a temptation to just discontinue events including Black History Month altogether, assuming they are simply not fit for purpose, or are vestiges of an era that has been ineffective.

Yet, in spite of all this, Black History Month, and in fact the whole broad system and tradition of racial movements – grassroots Black Lives Matter organisations, inclusion and equity efforts, and indeed, including corporate presentations – constitute an infrastructure that a lot of work has been invested in. It is there not just to decay as the politics moves on (and in fact, declines), but to be a living breathing thing.

So what would a contemporary active Black History Month seem? Well, first, 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) incorporated into educational programs. It would also be a era that does not shy away from governmental matters, and allows opportunity for individuals, particularly youth, to share their anxieties and narratives. What purpose serves basic knowledge of the past when it doesn’t reckon with the present reality of far-right rallies in the street? Establishments who observe it should not be comforted with the passive language of “unconscious bias” and alertness to “microaggressions”, but challenged by the dangers that affect everyone if fight against prejudice is not treated with importance. To summarize, Black History Month should be made contemporary, critical, and adaptive. Maybe an total re-identification is necessary – Contemporary Black History Month.