Thoughts on Black History Month

SashaSpins aka The Sasha Whitney

Happy Black History Month! I wanted to wait until the end of the month to share my thoughts on Black History Month - ranging from pride, joy, and excitement to frustration, disappointment, feeling drained, and ultimately disappointed. This starts off in childhood as often the only or one of few Black kids in class through experiencing life as balancing two identifies - a 1st generation Nigerian American and culturally being raised as such, one foot in that world, while also a Black American with my other foot in that world dealing with all the stereotypes, discrimination, prejudice, and racism that comes with that. Black History Month has become a lot less complicated growing up and understanding both of my identities. With the understanding of age also comes awareness and ultimately at times disappointment in society as a whole with how Black History Month has become little more than performance theater during February. So yeah, complicated feelings I wanted to wait until the end of the month to share in hopes that we can stop the performance of Black History Month that’s so often present when celebrating and be more intentional year-round.