Zeke Higgins

As Black History Month wraps up the time to reflect comes–too many Black History Months are a time where we recite and reflect on the historical struggles of black people around the country. While that is all well and good, it is beginning to get old. It seems like the only black history we care about is our history of oppression or our suffering history. We are taught the names of Martin Luther King Jr. and Harriet Tubman who suffered for the pursuit of a better life but not the names of men and women like Mansa Musa, a king who was so rich he disrupted economies and made the value of gold next to nothing  in some regions of Northern Africa with his mere donations. 

We don’t learn about Madam C.J. Walker, the first black self made millionaire and her hair care products tailored to black women that quickly amassed her a fortune. Yet I bet you don’t know who she is. 

Seeing these stories on repeat in my younger days only reinforced a helplessness in the black situation. I felt as though the black community was composed of victims not victors. 

    I’m also beginning to notice that Black History month is starting to become a trend with the prevalence of social media. Many influencers are taking advantage of black history to get views and simultaneously make themselves look more woke.  And I mean all the power to them but I believe it is starting to take away from the depth of black history month filing down from a month of true intentional learning and turning it into a fun trend. 

   Especially when it comes to the next generation we need to find a way to celebrate true black history that consists of our wins and losses, our struggles and our conquests. Black History month is becoming too comfortable or people have gotten too comfortable with it and history without discomfort is merely propaganda. America also has the strange tendency to only focus within its own history.  We focus within our borders and don’t acknowledge the black history in other countries that would not only enrich our understanding it would also add a little more perspective allowing for true education. And not to mention the people in America we taught  about from a young age are all lumped together as some sort of package. It’s almost as if people such as George Washington Carver,  Booker T. Washington and Frederick Douglas are important enough to remember but not quite enough to be brought into a deeper conversation about American history. Important black figures lose their depth within black history with Fredrick Douglas and Martin Luther shoved together even though the things they did and the times they were alive were quite distant and different–scarcely do you hear Abraham Lincoln and Fredrick Douglas mentioned together in a conversation even though they were contemporaries. But by far the worst perpetrator is Corporate Black History Month where February is treated like an exclusive event with speakers and outdoor events they can all profit off of, instead of it being a month of awareness. It’s twisted into a month of gluttony profit. In the end Black History Month is a great idea with tons of potential that just hasn’t been realized fully.