Why it’s important to celebrate Black History Month

For the UK, October means Black History Month – a time to focus on the history of BAME communities and bring these under-represented histories to the forefront of discussion.

Since histories of minorities, including those of the Black communities, are still largely neglected by the education curriculum, this month is a chance to showcase black heritage and culture, as well as bring to light some of the darker histories within our past.

It is hard to ignore the amount of news circulation about police brutality against people of colour, especially since the Black Lives Matter protests of June 2020. Yet, this is only one area of oppression that BAME communities are exposed to.

Dedicating a month to the teaching of black histories, allows us as a society to reflect upon histories of racism, and racial inequality, and make sure that we are making a constant effort to acknowledge white privilege, and also ensuring that we challenge any forms of racism that are still evident today.

As well as highlighting some of the darker histories that exist, it is also a way of showcasing black talent, culture, and contributions to history. Whether it is about their involvement in the Civil Rights Movement, or maybe black feminism – Black History Month allows people of colour to reclaim their agency within the creation of their histories, rather than have everything written from a white European viewpoint.

And indeed, that is something that Black History Month aims to do: to uncover the forgotten histories or the histories that have been neglected. Although black history as a discipline itself has grown in popularity within historiographical scholarship, there are still many aspects that remain unstudied and therefore unknown. This is also not helped by the lack of sources created by people of colour, and as a consequence scholarship has tended to rely upon sources created by elite white males, in order to construct the histories for BAME communities.

It is also not just ‘history’ that Black History Month aims to discuss, but also things like black literature, highlighting BAME figures within sport, politics, and so forth. It is a celebration of black people and their culture.

Hopefully, over time black histories will become more mainstream and, instead of a month dedicated to Black History, it will be integrated into the curriculum and discussions within society itself. But for now, it is important to keep educating yourselves on Black History, not just within the month of October, but throughout the year.

Edited by Nadia Lincoln

Image credit - Glodi Miessi via Unsplash