Rebooting Black History Month
Black History Month probably isn't having as much impact as once it did...but here's how it might be fixed.
It’s Black History Month (BHM) and this has gotten me pondering. I’m not lamenting US history, but wonder what, if any, impact BHM has in the present and if there is a better way it might be done. There are probably several issues that warrant a new look at BHM. First, that, likely most people aren’t paying much attention to BHM. Second, that BHM isn’t really about history anyway. Third, that BHM has been swamped by various other identity-focused days, weeks and months that have saturated people’s attention. At the heart of BHM is a worthy cause, but perhaps there’s a better approach to tackling it.
Let me start with what I think will be non-controversial. There is worthy spirit at the heart of BHM. In the early-mid 20th century the history of black Americans was often ignored, and black Americans have experienced a legacy that is often painful, given the history of slavery and segregation in the US. Further, finding time to appreciate diverse groups of Americans can be a mechanism for drawing us closer together, if done right. Black Americans should have an opportunity to share with us their culture, music, food, and experiences.
That said, I’m less convinced that BHM as it is currently practiced, dedicating the full month of February to the cause, is a success. Part of this is because we simply don’t have much data on it. There’s relatively little sense, in terms of measurable goals, of what BHM is meant to do, and whether it achieves those goals. I looked in the PsychINFO database of academic studies and found none that examined whether BHM inspired pedagogies led to anything measurable. There are tidbits of correlational data. American society today is likely a historical anomaly in regards to how taboo racism has become and how egalitarian Americans (and Europeans) regard race. As myself and colleague Sven Smith discovered in a recent meta-analysis, the US criminal justice system is largely fair when it comes to race and sentencing. On the other hand, according to Gallup polls, optimism in race relations has plummeted since 2014. Even though American racism is currently as low as it has likely been in any society, ever, particularly young people’s belief that racism is endemic to America appears to have skyrocketed. Is BHM responsible for either these positive or negative outcomes…I’m skeptical, but it can be hard to know without data.
Let me address my concerns with the current BHM iteration. First, I am doubtful most Americans are paying much attention to it. To be sure, there are some facets of America…politics and K12 education, in particular, where a focus on BHM is mandatory. Yet, polls show Americans split over the importance of BHM along predictable political left/right lines. It’s easy to cast any opposition to BHM as racist (and indeed, one suspects actual racists don’t much care for it), but some critiques of BHM are likely fair. However, my suspicion is that even many of the liberals/progressives who seemingly support BHM don’t actually do much of anything to observe it. Or perhaps more cynically, I suspect much of the ostensible support for BHM has more to do with social signaling and personal advancement than any actual curiosity about history or virtuous desire to find common ground between black and non-black Americans.
My second concern is that BHM is misnamed and isn’t really about history. To be sure, BHM may indeed highlight some interesting aspects of history that were ignored in previous eras, not just regarding racial injustice but also the positive contributions of black civil rights leaders, musicians, authors, scientists, etc. This is great! But history is typically messy, and most cultural groups will be embarrassed by some aspects of their history if we’re really being honest. For instance, black Africans were heavily involved in slavery before Europeans arrived on the scene and contributed as suppliers to the trans-Atlantic slave trade. North Africans enslaved at least a million whites, most of whom subsequently disappeared into Africa. There are potentially unflattering aspects of modern black history (just as there are for modern white, Latino, American Indian history, etc.), whether the disproportionate levels of fatherlessness and violent crime (likely related phenomena), or the racial grifting of the Black Lives Matter movement. Most controversial of late has been “defund the police” movement (which most black Americans didn’t want, in fairness) which likely resulted in the deaths of thousands of black Americans due to spiked homicide rates from 2020-2023. If “history” exists to make one cultural group look entirely good and another group entirely bad or promotes a grievance sense of world events it’s not really history. To be clear, it is not at all my argument that black history is any worse or better than that of any other group. Rather black history, like the history of any cultural group, is replete with narratives of both heroism and glory, but also cruelty and callousness. That is simply human history. Anything else, one way or another, is mere propaganda.
My third concern is that BHM was, at the time of its conception, both a historically understandable and unique cultural idea. However, in the decades since BHM began to be widely observed, it has sparked countless imitators among pretty much every identity group who view themselves as having some societal grievance. Looking at just one calendar of diversity/awareness days, there is virtually no day of the year when Americans aren’t supposed to be “aware” of one group or another. Some months one is supposed to be “aware” of competing groups. For instance, March is dedicated to Greek American Heritage, Gender Equality Month, National Women’s Month, Ethnic Equality Month, and Irish American Heritage Month (which, even as an Irish American I wasn’t aware of aside from St. Patrick’s Day of course). April covers Earth Month (Earth also has a day during Earth Month), Autism Awareness, Arab-American Heritage, Celebrate Diversity Month, and Scottish American Heritage (once again, being Scottish as well Irish in descent, this was still news to me). This doesn’t count all the various days and weeks within each month. So, the whole year goes. Do we really think the average person could pay attention to all this or take it seriously? The metastasizing of so many special interest days, weeks and months has rendered the whole effort a carnival; saturated such that no such day or month has any special value. It’s natural for people to tune out the whole enterprise at this point. Perhaps BHM was the first and is a victim of these other hangers-on. Nonetheless, the writing is on the wall. If every day is special, no day is special.
It's really difficult for people to be “aware” of something for a whole month anyway. Does the average person think much about black history during BHM or, say, about much of anything of value during Pride Month (June, shared with National Caribbean American Heritage and Black Music Month, which may make our gay colleagues wonder whether black Americans didn’t just get a month in February). But even if BHM were the only game in town, a whole month is just too long to hold people’s attention. It invites procrastination. Even if one were inclined to do something practical to help black Americans, say, by making the effort to patronize a black owned business (an awesome idea!), on Feb 1, it’s easy to put it off to Feb 2, then 3, 4, etc. We can’t do the 14th as that’s Valentine’s day and got to take out the missus. Pretty soon it’s the end of the month and nothing got done, but now it’s time for focus on those Greeks, Women and Irish anyway (mixed heritage Greek Irish women hit the trifecta in March), so maybe next year.
Or course these concerns might be dismissible if BHM did something useful. But does it? This is where I’d love some clear data. I suppose the most generous argument in favor of BHM is that black people feel valued and heard and this is a very good thing. Beyond that, most of the other metrics, such as optimism over race relations, or belief in systemic bias (evidence for which is pretty dodgy), are heading in the wrong direction. Of course, this may have less to do with BHM than how progressives evolved to one-up each other in their pessimism about race in the US as expressed constantly in news media, university classes, DEI trainings, and K12 history and literature education.
So, I’m not saying that BHM is necessarily without merit. But I don’t think its current iteration is working. I do have suggestions for how to make it a greater success:
1) No more months. Months are just too long. Everyone can have a day. Single days are more focused and more likely to prompt people to action. If we argue, “Celebrate black Americans by patronizing a black-owned business” it’s easier to encourage people to do this on, say, February 3, then sometime in the month of February, whenever people get a chance. Also, if we focus on days rather than months, it’s easier to give everyone a fair shot.
2) Black history should simply be folded into actual American history. This should cover both the positive contributions of black Americans to the US, the legacy of slavery, race riots and Jim Crow, but also features of black history that aren’t particularly flattering to black Americans as well. History should always be honest, not serving a particular sociopolitical agenda.
3) All “heritage” days including for black Americans should be positive, feel-good events. Again, relegate history to history class. Stop telling people to mope about in shame…this simply does not bring us anything constructive, particularly for events that happened before most of us were alive. Instead, Black Heritage Day should be about black food, music, art, faith, etc. It should be a day of sharing that all people, black, white, or other can share in as brothers and sisters uniting as Americans. Days such as Cinco de Mayo and St. Patrick’s Day provide excellent examples.
4) In general, focus on carrots, not sticks. Stop lecturing non-black people how they are bad. Incentivize people by tempting them with the food, music, and culture they may experience at festivals, or simply by trying out a locally owned black business. Emphasize blacks as fellow Americans, not a victim class.
5) Everybody gets a single day. At present some identity groups are trying to claim multiple days, weeks, and months. Frankly, this starts to look silly, not constructive over time.
I think it’s possible to make BHM (and similar heritage days) into something unifying and constructive. I’m no longer sure the traditional BHM is working. But that doesn't mean we dismiss the idea altogether. A Black Heritage Day could truly focus people on black culture while integrating us all, black, white, Latino, Asian, etc., into a shared national family.