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Black History Month
Steffon Isaac
As of 2021 Black History Month has been celebrated 45x since being institutionalized by President Gerald Ford in 1976. To put that into perspective, we’ve reflected on black history for about 4 years of America's 402 year history. Said differently, America has spent less than 1% of its collective consciousness thinking about the contributions of black people.
“We’ve reflected on black history for about 4 years of America's 402 year history.”
Black History Month traces its roots to Carter G. Woodson, who in 1920, believed that acknowledging black history would inspire other blacks to reach for higher heights. It started as a week - Negro History Week - in February to align with the celebrations blacks were already holding for Abraham Lincoln (Feb 12th), and Frederick Douglass (Feb 14th). In the late 1960’s Negro History Week became what we know today as Black History Month.
Black History Month was created to solve a kind of cultural amnesia - a condition where blacks forgot their heroes, their scholars, their physicians, and their intellectuals. If Black History Month was successful, its adoption would render it obsolete. It was designed to be a mental bridge for blacks, not a commercial highway for America.
“If Black History Month was successful, its adoption would render it obsolete”
Today Black History Month is a destructive form of tokenism that organizations should abstain from. It absolves the individual from moral scrutiny, an exercise that should be at the center of DE&I work. Relegating the celebration of black culture to a time-boxed activity frames the exercise as one of tolerance, and not one of acceptance. It frames it as something we should be patient to, and not something we should be in agreement with. Here are 3 examples of organizational performance art.
- Posting the sole black person on your social channels and website hero banners during Black History Month.
- Only publicly recognizing your black employees during Black History Month.
- Inviting your black employees to share their experience as a person of color with the organization during Black History Month.
“Relegating the celebration of black culture to a time-boxed activity frames the exercise as one of tolerance, and not one of acceptance.”
Let us honor the spirit of Black History Month by recognizing the achievements of black employees all the time and in real-time.
