In a few days, Black History month will be upon us, and with everything that has transpired in 2020, I’d expect a level of pandering like none before. From a geek perspective, I expect to see a rehashed ideas of the same black characters pop up in “top 10” lists, companies suddenly remembering that there are Black content creators and streamers and reach out to them (or even just get non-black creators to talk about black issues), and virtue signaling taken to new levels of annoying. And that’s on top of the historical aspect that comes with that month. Now, you’re probably wondering why I sound so pessimistic about Black History month, well that’s because I am.
As I have gotten older, Black History month went from a month of feeling awkward about why we even have a month dedicated to our race to a month I wholeheartedly despise, as it does nothing but feel like a month of pandering comments, condescending compliments, and overall trivializing our more than thousands of years of historical events to a single month, not to mention the SHORTEST MONTH OF THE YEAR (ignoring the UK’s Black History month that takes place in October). Look, I know some good things come from Black History month, from hearing about investors, creators pioneers, innovators, and leaders that the Black/African race has produced, yet I don’t need a month as a reminder that these people existed.
This should already be taught in schools, or at the very least make this information available for young people to consume. God knows it would have been nice to know all that I know now during my childhood. Unlike most people, I at least wasn’t deceived for one moment into believing that my race did nothing at a young age and went seeking knowledge, unfortunately, I can’t say the same for my brethren.
Not to mention with so much going on that month, people will forget 80 percent of what they’ve learned if it’s not steadily shown. I don’t need a list of Black video characters as a top 10 list video because most of them are already known, and furthermore could have been done at ANY TIME. Not sharing black channels that you know damm well people won’t support long term. If you knew they were making great content, why wait until BHM to be reminded to share?
I don’t want to see people suddenly use the month for good SEO purposes, clout chase, or virtue signal on how they’re such a good social justice warrior. I don’t want to hear you say you’re going to support black businesses like you’re donating to a charity out of pity or sympathy. If you had the ability to find these businesses in the first place, you could have spent money there any time of the day/week/month, share it on your social media if they produced good quality services or goods, and helped them out throughout the year if you believed in their mission.
Black history month started with good intention, and in some cases, it still retains some of its value, but the overall event itself seems bloated with sham! But that’s just me, to be honest, I’m not calling for the end of the month but we need to start discussing the relevance of such a month and whether it should continue.
