It is absolutely important that we celebrate Black History. It is also absolutely important that we celebrate women’s history, Native American heritage, Hispanic American heritage, Asian American heritage and others. Why then, do we have designated months for each? Furthermore, why do we seem to elevate some of them more than others? History is not made compiled neatly into one single month, let alone the shortest month of the year. History is made every single day.
By compiling cultural history celebrations neatly into individual months, it is easy for companies to get behind them in time to sell merchandise like tote bags featuring Rosa Parks quotes and T-shirts with Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s collar. Bookstores will put out displays featuring titles by only Black authors, which will eventually be removed at the end of the month. What happens when February comes to an end? March? April? These months feel like tokenisms, reminders to celebrate non-white, non-male history because the country may not collectively be moved to do so otherwise.
Last year, I discovered Filipino Heritage Month, something I had never heard of before then and yet in my entire life has always been the month of October. Being half Filipina, I would have liked to have known about it but I happened to hear of it by the time it was already over. I wondered why I had not heard of it until fairly recently. Perhaps it got lost in the shuffle. I wondered why some heritage/history months seem to be emphasized more than others, and it might not just be simply because they are closer to the beginning of the year.
I find it difficult to air this opinion as comfortably as I would like because we live in a culture where a modicum of protest against something meant to encourage diversity could immediately be labeled as bigoted. This is why America direly needs a reconciliation, an ability to have deep conversations around diversity and inclusion. However, I continue because I know I can both desire to live in a country where all cultures are celebrated and dare to ask for just a little more than that.
I understand the intentions behind honoring POC figures and I am all for it. For the record, I am not here to disparage or denounce it. I only wish that these celebrations were realistically distributed across the year. America needs to let go of its iron grip on (literally) black-or-white binaries of culture and embrace all the cultures it receives. We need to treat celebratory practice less like routine maintenance and more like the natural thread of our identity as a richly diverse country.