Cringey t-shirt displays, the African diaspora and the albums of popular black artists crowd stores like wildfire during the last week of January into February. In an attempt to show their support for Black History Month, many stores dig into whatever items they think best represents black culture and sell it in stores for about a month or so.
February has been deemed Black History Month since 1976, with its origins dating back to 1926 with the start of “Negro History Week.” This was coined by historian Carter G.Woodson, according to History.com. Black History Month is typically the one month of the year where an effort is made across the globe to highlight black figures and speak more positively on the history of black people in America.
Over the years, Black History Month to me has become nothing more than a sales pitch to boost the number of black people coming into stores to buy “exclusive” merch designated for the month. Target usually sits their highlighted items, such as shirts and albums of popular black artists, towards the front of the store. The display usually contains a large sign stating their support for the black community.
While Target supports the black community year-round with items in their stores and makes an effort to support black creators and entrepreneurs, other stores seem to lack the true support and even Target’s efforts seem a little performative.
Supporting black people, black history and black culture shouldn’t feel so exclusive to February. Shirts with characters like Penny Proud from Disney’s “Proud Family” or Princess Tiana aren’t showing true support to the black artists, creators and black people in general. Most times items like that can be found at the Disney Store or in the graphic tee section of any store. Stitching black people onto a shirt or poster board in a store in February and calling it “support” is far from it.
Investing in black organizations, hiring black people into leadership roles and being at the forefront for diversity is showing support. Stopping with the capitalistic mindset that anything with “black girl magic” on it is going to boost sales for February. Adding a Prince or Michael Jackson vinyl to your store is noted as a “good start” for some stores. Allowing black entrepreneurs to have their products in stores is going to encourage people to support these businesses and allow for these barriers to break within the business world.
Black History Month should not be about making extra money for a month, but more about putting into the community year-round and creating spaces that can be more inclusive to black people and the history surrounding these communities. Black culture shouldn’t be used to make a few extra dollars, but rather used as a way to include black people for proper representation, rather than cultural appropriation or misuse.
Stores should make more of an effort to include black people and their culture properly, rather than putting out merchandise that barely touches the surface of black culture and its history.