Beyond Cultural Heritage Months
On the Mentality of Scarcity as A Tool of Oppression
It has never sat well with me that we celebrate these holidays for particular cultures or “minority” groups on specific days of the year – or months, if you’re lucky or large enough of a population. Black history in February. Women’s history in March. Asian heritage in May. Pride in June. National Indigenous History Month in June. Filipino heritage…again in June. Latin Heritage Month in October. And the list goes on…
While the creation of these holidays may have been well-intentioned and a symbol for progress at the time, the reality is that it is performative in essence and limits us to the bare minimum.
It encourages all of us to learn of these histories, heritages, cultures, and communities only during these specific times of the year instead of all year round as an integrated part of our educational curriculum and our collective consciousness. It’s lazy at best, and deeply harmful at worst.
It’s harmful because these heritage months subtly reinforce the mentality of scarcity that plague so many of us who are part of these underrepresented communities.
It teaches us that XX month XX is our month to speak out and stand up. That we must only take up space during those allotted weeks. No more, no less.
And heck, we should be grateful to even be given this time.
What I find to be the most harmful though is that this mentality of scarcity signals to us that we are in competition with one another. In June alone here in Canada, we celebrate Pride, we celebrate National Indigenous History Month, and in more recent years, we celebrate Filipino Heritage Month.
There are only so many months in the year and it feels like we must compete for airtime. We must jostle at each other for recognition of our very worth and value.
Even in these months that are meant to honour our communities and our contributions, we are still playing by the rules of someone else’s game. Remaining within the distinct lines that they created.
How powerful these systems of oppression work! So subtle, so smooth, so damn sophisticated…
I have come to dread May and June because of all the contradictions and conflict it brings up within me.
Again, here in Canada, we celebrate May as Asian Heritage Month and June as Filipino Heritage Month — two communities of which I am proud to be a part. Don’t get me wrong, I love seeing my community coming out and sharing our rich heritage, our vibrant culture, and our undeniable excellence in full force during this time (though we do it all year-round, really).
Each year during this time, I get inundated with requests to speak on behalf of my community and/or to facilitate my writing workshops to uplift and inspire students from these communities. It’s wonderful, of course! And I will always welcome the opportunity to share my work and to speak on the complex and nuanced issues that affect us.
But at the same time, it can be frustrating. How I wish the desire and urgency to hear my voice, my story, and my insights were present steadily throughout the year and not dictated by a government-recognized month. How I wish the impetus for hiring me wasn’t just to tick off diversity and inclusion calendar requirements.
I am always left feeling the impulse to say yes to absolutely every opportunity that comes my way during these months because well, the opportunity might not present itself again. Isn’t that sad?
I know that heritage months have been integral to raising mainstream awareness about various communities that have shaped our society. We needed them at the time. But I think we are ready to move beyond this limited mentality, this mentality that reinforces scarcity in racialized and marginalized communities.
If there is anything my work at Living Hyphen has taught me, it is that there is infinite space for all of us. We don’t need designated months to recognize and celebrate each other’s humanity. We can hold all of our truths, all of our identities, all of these complexities at once and at all times.
And so today, and every day, I challenge you to break past the narrow idea of heritage months and the limitations these systems of oppression have built and continues to foment in each one of us.
Let’s make learning about each of our communities and cultures a part of our everyday exercise.
Keep Moving Along Your Anti-Racism Journey
“Being an ally is “not an identity — it is a lifelong process of building relationships based on trust, consistency, and accountability with marginalized individuals and/or groups of people. Allyship is not self-defined — our work and our efforts must be recognized by the people we seek to ally ourselves with.” — Anti-Oppression Network,
At Living Hyphen, we strive to work in solidarity across racial lines to dismantle white supremacy and towards our shared liberation. Our anti-racism and Indigenous allyship resources aim to move us along this journey. It is meant to be a living resource, an ongoing work-in-progress (just as we are!) that we all create together in community.
We encourage you to dive in and share it widely across your networks.
There is much to remember, to fight for, and to celebrate during all of these history and heritage months. While these months may feel good on the surface, I do believe that on a deeper level, they actually serve to keep us disparate, to keep us separate instead of as part of a grander whole.
We must move beyond these cultural heritage months to recognize how interconnected all of our histories, futures, and current struggles and triumphs actually are. We must hold and carry multitudes.
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