Some Thoughts on BHM
Happy Black History month to all!
Ah, this trivial month of supposed reflection, education and action that will lead us into becoming a post-racial society. The whole concept of having a Black History Month (BHM) feels surreal to me. In this piece I’m going to talk about my experience with the gaps ins education, the lack of nuance in the social perception of “Blackness”, but the abundance of joy that comes with being Black.
Education
I knew about the colonial history of Zimbabwe from the stories my parents told me throughout my childhood, so when it came to History class in secondary school, I was very excited to learn more about the construction of the British Empire and how they got away with it (as it is one of the biggest heists in human history). That is not what happened. My basic British history was summed up by The Battle of Hastings, a couple plagues and both World Wars. We swiftly moved onto American history and the only mention of Black people this time was through a diagram of a slave ship full of enslaved Africans, and Martin Luther King Jr. Now it is worth mentioning, that if I took History onto GCSE or A-Level, more would have been unpacked, but if it is compulsory to learn about the foundations of two “great” nations, it should also be compulsory to learn about how they were built.
In my final year in secondary school, one of my classmates started a “discussion” (a rant) on why he believed that racism didn’t exist in the western world. Direct cause and effect. When you teach colonisation as innocent pilgrims on a journey to find a new home, and ethnic cleansing as creating order in “uncivilised” cultures, then wrap it up with an attitude of “that was the past and everything is fine now”, this is what you end up with – a hoard of students with no reason to see that racial oppression is systematic, unless that is their lived experience. Very quickly understood that the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.
Monolithic Identity
What is Black? Like, honestly. To me the term “Black” is so absurd because it feels like the category of “other”. To some, Black is what they seen on screen, so Black is synonymous with African-American, which is false. If you are using Black to define anyone who has dark skin, relative to white people that is, you have so many different ethnicities and cultures encompassed by that: African, Caribbean, African Diaspora, Caribbean Diaspora, Afro-Latinex, Indigenous people of America, Indigenous people of Australia, Indigenous people of Aotearea (New Zealand), Canada, India, the Phillipines…do you get the point I’m trying to make? We are everywhere and with such range between each one of our cultures. I can say I’m Black, or I’m African, or I’m Southern African, or I’m Zimbabwean, or I’m Shona (an ethnic group within Zimbabwe) or I’m a Shona person that was born and raised in the UK - that says far more about my cultural identity than “Black” ever could. That said, I’m not going to be the one to beg for specificity in how my identity is spoken about because it will be lost on people who have no desire to learn what “Shona” means. So here we are, reclaiming language when we should be reclaiming land.
The JOY
Now let me be clear. Being Black is not a sob story. When it comes to BHM, the usual mainstream focus points, as I have already shown, are the transatlantic slave trade and colonisation (and it should remain that way until white people pay for their crimes xx), but I like my focus to be on the joy and creativity that my community has to offer. Being Black and online in October is like winning the jackpot. All of a sudden different companies and brands have all of these Black artists they want to highlight. Yes, it can be performative, you may never see these brands promote these artists again, but at least you have found new inspiration! And oh, the memes! If I love this month for one thing, it’s the Twitter threads. I see the funniest posts and comments from Black creators, it’s a bit meta to have this virtual community of people you have never met but share so many experience with (and I’ve learnt far more about African inventors on Twitter than I ever learnt in school).
Thinking about my cultural history just brings me to my family. I think about the love I have for them and the nights I spent splitting my sides with laughter with my sisters when we should have been fast asleep. I love being Zimbabwean, no shocker there, I bring it up in every post! I am falling short right now. I thought I would be able to describe this joy but I don’t think I’m going to manage to put this feeling into words, so have this instead: ABYUCDFSOCKABDSYCFDBCDSHBHVBFGYAVDSLAHVFK!!!!
This month sort of doesn’t mean anything on a systematic level, but it’s kinda everything to me on a silly and goofy level. Do I think this annual tradition will eradicate Black hate and all of the systems that come with it? No. Do I like learning more about African people, in all of our variations, and showing others our undeniable impact on pretty much anything? Yes. If you are a person of colour (another loaded racial descriptor, thanks to a Twitter thread, I prefer “person of the global majority”, yes it’s a mouthful but it’s factual and funny ), I look forward to your history/heritage months. And if you are a white person, don’t ask the Black people in your life to explain how you should be unlearning racism, do your own research and send them money instead xx.
Here's a video of Daniel Kaluuya that I love.
Byeeeeee
