Celebrating Black History Month will remain symbolic without enacting laws
Awareness must lead to awakening and eventually to attainment
Monday February 8, 2021, By B. Kumaravadivelu
If it is February, it must be Black History Month.
America is perhaps unique in designating specific months for celebrating specific ethnic heritage. Other multicultural, multiethnic and multilingual countries such as Australia, Britain, and Canada do not have such an ethnicity-based, month-long event every year.
In addition to Black History month, other designated months include Irish-American Heritage month in March, Jewish-American Heritage month in May, Asian-Pacific Heritage month again in May, National Hispanic Heritage month in September-October, and American-Indian Heritage month in November.
No doubt, celebrating heritage months is laudable. It’s aimed at creating diversity awareness among people of various ethnic background striving to live together harmoniously as citizens of a pluralistic democracy. Besides, incorporating ethnic stories written by ethnic writers in the school curriculum has the potential to channel young minds toward a better understanding of the nation’s multifaceted cultural heritage.
We, however, seem to forget that celebrations of heritage months are not an end in themselves; they are a means to an end, the end being creating conditions necessary for ensuring freedom for all, equality for all, prosperity for all.
We often fail to ensure the creation of such conditions and squander away our energy and effort on superficialities.
What do we normally see happening during Black History month?
Invariably, schools are targeted with the good intention of educating our youth. Most schools invite guest speakers who enthusiastically talk about Rosa Park, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., or other African-American historical figures. Some schools organize debates and discussions. Some others display arts and artifacts from the African-American community.
Many school children seem to enjoy and learn from the activities organized in their school — when they encounter them for the first time. However, they soon discover that the same routine is repeated year after year after year. They get bored with it. After the festivities are over, they slip back into their own cultural cocoon — only to return to the same old tiring rituals the following year.
Outside school systems, newspapers and TV channels invite African-American celebrities and scholars to write or speak about Black history or contemporary Black life. This year, some media outlets came out with “14 books to read during Black History Month,” “40 movies to watch during Black History Month.” Most probably these books and movies will be relegated to the archives at the end of February.
In other words, knowingly or unknowingly, we’ve been promoting routinized and ritualized celebration of difference that becomes no more than transient Kumbaya moments.
What we’ve not cared to do is to work to dismantle the widespread structural inequality and foster an environment where members of all the racial/ethnic communities enjoy a comfortable level of equality.
The Black History month, in its current form, was introduced in 1976. Since then, a segment of the African-American community has registered tremendous progress in areas such as politics, entertainment, and sports.
Recently, the country elected and re-elected a Black President. Now we have a Black Vice-President who also happens to be a woman and a person of South Asian descent. Both a first in the history of America. In addition, we learn from a Pew Research Center report that, in the newly elected 117th Congress, Black representation has increased to a record 13 percent, almost equal to the share of African-American population in the country.
Moreover, there are many Black celebrities among singers and songwriters, and among sports figures. Equally impressive is the number of successful Black educators, journalists, business leaders, authors.
All this might lead us to conclude that Black Agenda has become a reality — an agenda that aims at empowering “black communities to educate and challenge elected officials, policy makers, and legislators to take positions that are beneficial to the community.”
The nascent Black Lives Matter movement has been making significant strides toward that end.
“But some of what we see may be illusory,” warns Charles Blow, a prominent columnist from The New York Times. He asserts that “in some ways the passing of a Black agenda may become harder, not easier. The window that could allow the passage of such a slate of policies may be closing as we speak.”
The African-American columnist is right because, while a segment of the Black community has done very well, the prosperity has not percolated down the socio-economic ladder. For instance, it was recently reported that “the average Black family has just one-tenth the wealth of the average white family while the gap between white and Black in home ownership is now larger than it was in 1960.”
Many attribute this dismal picture to systemic inequality and systemic discrimination which remain an intractable problem.
President Joe Biden acknowledged it during his campaign, in his inaugural address, and in his executive orders on inequality and diversity. “The simple truth,” he said, “is our soul will be troubled as long as systemic racism is allowed to persist.”
In order to address racial inequalities, he has signed executive orders designed to promote equity in housing, in renting, in mortgages. He has also ordered the phasing out of some private prisons deemed to be discriminatory.
In order to pursue his comprehensive approach that involves every branch of his government, he has appointed to key administrative positions members of civil rights community who are committed to equity and justice.
All commendable initiatives, no doubt.
But in reality, what we have now are executive orders that can easily be reversed. What we really need are legislative proposals that can become the nation’s laws.
Admirable intentions must be translated into attainable goals supported by enforceable laws. Otherwise, they will remain hollow symbols.
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