THERE SHOULDN’T be a need to cram Black history into a single month, each year. The teaching of Black history should be a part of a continuous education viewed through the wider lens of human history. And furthermore, it’s high time that the often sanitised version of black history taught in schools is radically transformed. 

In school I had some great teachers. But the only black history I was taught focused on slavery, and Britain’s so-called role in ending it.  Beyond that, there was also a nod to the civil rights movement in the United States. Looking back I’m pretty sure that my teachers did their best, but were simply teaching the only aspects of black history that they themselves knew of. 

But it wasn’t enough.

I didn’t learn about the Haitian revolution of 1804 for example, until years after leaving school when reading authors, including my fellow Trinidadian, CLR James.  

“Understanding black history in its totality is a lifelong task, but undertaking it means that we have the chance to empower our young people with the right tools for the challenges ahead.”

I only learned of the long history of black people in Britain including the presence of Black Georgians and Victorians in my twenties.  And I had no idea of the deep-rooted traditions of radical black intellectualism and organising which has long existed in the UK, until I moved to London. My generation didn’t have great people like Akala to fill the gaps. Akala is the same generation as me.

But now, our job is to empower the next generation with the history needed to equip them with the current challenges we face.  As well as the rich layers of African history, vastly missing in classrooms, we need to also empower them with the recent stories of black British achievement.  

It’s vital they learn about the Mangrove community Black radicalism of several decades ago and the fight for civil rights here in the UK as well as about the life of Olaudah Equiano.  

Luckily, there are many great teachers they can access, carrying that radical torch. Paul Gilroy, Robin Walker, Kehinde Andrews, and the work of people like the late Andrea Levy and Benjamin Zephaniah walk in that proud tradition.  Switch on the TV and you can watch documentaries by Afua Hirsch and David Olusoga. The list is endless. 

There is a huge pool of black British talent to draw from to help push our young people forward empowering them with history.  But we can’t live in history. We can only use it to strengthen us in the present.

And our young people have monumental tasks ahead of them.

Cancel culture is a real thing. But what worries me, is the attempted cancellation of the truth about ongoing systematic racism in the UK.  We can’t let that happen. The stakes are too high.

The government backed report several months back, trivialising the scope of institutional racism, was accused of gaslighting Black communities into denying their lived experience of racism.  Covid has magnified those very serious and real lived realities. 

Black communities have been tremendously hit hard by the effects of Covid, with black NHS doctors, practitioners and frontline workers dying in disproportionately high numbers as a result.

Radical

Others have struggled to access vital healthcare needed, while public sector workers as well as those forced to live in cramped unfit housing, have also been devastated.

Unemployment which was already high in black communities will have been exacerbated by people losing their means of employment during the pandemic.

And the ongoing systemic racism all too evident within the so-called criminal justice system, again disproportionately impacting Britain’s Black communities, is endemic of deep injustice still festering at the heart of British society.

The Windrush scandal remains unresolved, despite the tireless work and good will of those advocating on behalf of the victims.

Clearly, and very clearly, a radical black agenda is needed. Black political representation is nowhere near where it should be in reflecting modern Britain.  

And, much like elsewhere in the world, the political class continue to take the black vote for granted, demanding it’s currency at election time, while offering nothing in return. It’s the same cycle we see repeated, over and over.

We learned recently that one of Britain’s few black female MPs, Marsha de Cordova, reportedly had her plans to develop a new law to tackle racial inequality derailed by Keir Starmer’s circle leading her to resign as Labour’s shadow equalities minister. This is unacceptable.

And let’s not forget, that while the official government opposition stands accused of side-lining race equality, the government itself has clamped down on the right to assemble and protest because of the power of Black Lives Matter demonstrations last year.  With Prime Minister Boris Johnson in charge, needless to say, tackling the issues which matter to Black communities is unlikely to be among his top priorities.

This Black history month has to be about more than celebrating history or even redefining what is taught.  We can do that ourselves as well as working within the parameters we have to influence what is taught in classrooms.

Understanding black history in its totality is probably a lifelong task, but undertaking it means that we have the chance to empower our young people with the right tools for the challenges ahead.

A watered down version of black history means grovelling for a seat at the table. A richer understanding of history is to understand that black communities built the table and that there is no table without black people.

The awakening of the collectivised power and knowledge of self has the potential to transform the future entirely, politically, socially, and economically.  It’s what the powers that be often fear and try to suppress.  It’s no accident that state taught black history, excludes so many narratives.  It’s by design.  If that takes time to change then it needs to be circumvented.

Britain’s radical black traditions and history which transformed the country should be celebrated, revered, acknowledged, but ultimately continued, which will benefit all of society.