Black History Month allows everyone, regardless of race, class, or status, to share, celebrate and understand the diversity, uniqueness, and impact of black heritage and culture. What, where, and who constitutes black heritage and culture, you might be curious.
Black culture and heritage is about inheriting and celebrating customs, beliefs, practices, and ways of doing things, as black people, from past generations and continuing in the same ways. From Jean-Jacques Dessalines who led the Haitian revolution; to Martin Luther King Jr. who led the American civil rights movement; to Nelson Mandela who led the transition of South Africa from apartheid to a multiracial democracy; to Barack Obama the first Black American president; to Ben Carson, the first black neurosurgeon; Kanye West, multi-award winning producer, artist, and fashion mogul; George Floyd the inspiration behind the Black Lives Matter movement, and every black migrant who has come from over the seas to find a better life outside their home country. Black history month seeks to celebrate the contribution of these black people to, first, the black race and then, the all-round development of our world.
The truth is that black people, as a group, still have a long way to go in participating, progressing, and attaining higher levels of quality education. A 2021/22 Access Higher Education report showed that the gap between black and white students in 2018-19 amongst those achieving First/Upper 2:1 in the UK is 15%—which is 7% lower than the gap identified nationally. Proving that there is still a lot of work to be done. However, the question we should be asking ourselves is: who should do what and how do we go about executing these actions?
Personally, my experiences as a young black person have been an even mix of love, pride, and sacrifice, love for my people, pride in my history, and sacrifice for my beliefs. My people are my people, regardless of whatever. I exude a great amount of pride in my history - the struggles, pain, and misery that my ancestors had to go through to ensure that we, their descendants, get a good life, a life void of injustice, humiliation, and unfairness. Without those sacrifices, I would not be here today, educating you about our history.
Lastly, I have had to sacrifice for the things I deserve. In some instance, I believe I deserve the best quality of education, and in pursuit of this, I have had to sacrifice a great part of myself to stay awake studying in the library, my fears to ask for help, and my doubts when I decide to be creative. In the same vein, I believe I deserve to be free - freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of movement, etc. Also, I believe I deserve to be rewarded sufficiently for work done, I believe that I deserve to be treated with respect, dignity, and grace, and I believe I deserve the very best from life - first because I am a human being and secondly because I put in extra effort to get the things I deserve.
I wish that, in this time and age, black people do not have to face racism, inequality, and injustice but the reality is different. Black people are still exploited, stereotyped, and abused. I did not plan to be black nor did my parents. It happened without my consent, and, even if I could I change it, I won’t. I love black and I have come to cherish, accept, and propagate my identity as a black person. I have also grown to be aware of the wide range of diversity, ambiguity, and multiplicity that this world offers.
More than ever, we need to stick together, shunning the divide of race, class, and status. In this case, focusing our minds on the outstanding contribution Black people have made to society, not just here in Birmingham, not just now in October, but in every single moment in history.
As a Birmingham City University student, there are plenty of ways to actively engage in this year's Black History Month, including:
- Engage in our decolonisation of the University curriculum
- Share a video on social media telling us about your black history hero
- Attend the Q&A Session to talk about the Future of Black People
- Attend the Story telling or Movie Night where we screen a movie on Black Lives Matter
- Engage with the black business networking on campus
As Lonnie G. Bunch III said
“There is no more powerful force than a people steeped in their history. And there is no higher cause than honouring our struggle and ancestors by remembering".
The road ahead is farther than we can imagine but as a people of vision, strength, and resilience we should be, more than ever, confident in our ability to survive, thrive, and multiply.
Happy Black History Month!