Skye Crawford
Black History Month is a time to recognize the contributions of African Americans to the formation and maintenance of our country. It addresses past and present discrimination against Black people in the U.S., and commemorates activists like Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells, W.E.B. Du Bois and more. And while it’s important to learn about the struggles of Black people in history, it’s just as important to recognize other aspects of Black history beyond slavery and the Civil Rights Movement.
As a Black woman, it can be tiring and disheartening to constantly hear about the history of violence and hatred perpetrated against my people. Just like my Black peers, I’ve grown up learning about it and witnessing it for myself. The consistent reminders of the way we’re disenfranchised in this country strips us of our hope for the future and for our posterity.
Additionally, my community feels pressured by non-Black people to educate those who are racially privileged about the brutality of our history and the consequences it has on our present. This chore often requires dredging up our personal traumas.
For example, I once had to explain to a former friend how redlining — a form of discrimination where people of color are denied financial services like mortgages based on their neighborhood location — has placed Black people at an economic disadvantage despite the practice being outlawed in the Civil Rights Era. While I doubt this person remembers this interaction, it was a defining moment for me because of how mentally draining it was.
While moments like these seem small enough to brush under the rug, it’s the culmination of all these moments that creates a nearly irreversible Black fatigue. Since Black people are the ones working for our true liberation and integration, Black History Month should be constructed for us rather than for white people who are still trying to understand how historically horrific racism has manifested itself in all our systems and institutions. If we cater Black History Month to Black people as we should, then February could be celebratory rather than mournful.
We should be celebrating the lives and culture of past and present Black people. Langston Hughes, for example, did this when he wrote the poem “My People,” which celebrates the beauty of Black life in the face of adversity.
We should be celebrating events like the Harlem Renaissance, the era in which Hughes’ poem was born, which describes the transformation and ascendancy of Black culture in the 1920s.
We should be celebrating the role of Black people in spaces like the beauty industry such as Jackie Aina, a Black YouTuber and makeup connoisseur.
We also can’t ignore the role Black people have played in creating modern music tastes. For example, Afrobeat, a Nigerian music genre, has inspired songs like Doja Cat’s “Woman” and Drake’s “One Dance.”
This is not to say that no one is addressing the other features of the Black experience. Target’s Black history month collection was primarily crafted by Black designers and creators, illustrating a platform given to them for Black pride.
You can purchase from Black-owned companies that use their platform similarly, such as Mented Cosmetics and small businesses in downtown Raleigh. There are also outlets at NC State committed to this purpose as well, such as the African American Cultural Center podcast and the student-led podcast On Black. Additionally, the University’s African American Cultural Center participates in a variety of events dedicated to honoring the Black experience, one of which is the upcoming Black Euphoria: Love Letters to Black Life gallery opening on Feb. 28.
These beautiful aspects of Black culture are the things we should be addressing during Black History Month. Certainly, the other aspects of Black history can’t be ignored either. As someone who faces the legacy of discrimination against African Americans, I know how critical it is to recognize the wrongs inflicted upon my people. However, Black Americans are often reduced to their trauma by non-Black people who lack true curiosity about the several layers to our history.
As Black History Month comes closer to an end, we should all start reframing our view of it. Let’s celebrate Black culture and excellence while avoiding the retraumatization of Black Americans.