the Empathy List #98: What is Black History Month for?

Tokenism vs. Representation

Hello friends, Liz here.

This month is Black History month.

On the socials, I’ve heard a variety of views on this national holiday as folks reckon with the cost and privilege(?) of being “included.”

They wonder, is the one-time inclusion of brown bodies mere performance or a shift in cultural norms? Is it safe to see it as a celebration, stemming from genuine curiosity and openness toward difference in our society? Or is it foolishness to hope for change? How can we tell the difference between tokenism and representation?

I hear the pain that undergirds these questions.

It makes SO MUCH sense that some black Americans have decided that Black History month is THE WORST and that it’s a month solely devoted to assuaging white guilt, a way of performing allyship without any ACTUAL change to accompany the marketing.

In this view, the history of Black America—and thereby, Black Americans themselves—becomes a tool, much like Jesus became a tool in the recent Superbowl ad that got so many of us …