I had the great honour of speaking to two very different organisations over the weekend as they kicked off Black History Month (BHM). Yesterday’s was incredibly immense at The Globe in Reading. It was a festival of cultures coming together. We were served with a rich variety of flag-waving, drum-beating dancing in the Parade of Nations with well over 30 nations represented and afterwards a sumptuous array of culinary delights. All of this was orchestrated by the incredible organiser/leader extraordinaire, Sylvia Stevenson.
What was particularly intriguing for me was when the UK was announced. Almost the whole audience of over 300 people got up and paraded the Union Jack, most of whom swaggered earlier in the individual parade of their nation. Then it dawned on me what multiculture is.
The eminent professor, Paul Gilroy, states that (and I paraphrase) multiculture is the natural commingling of different peoples and cultures where differences are daily worked out without one culture exerting superiority over the other. He suggests that this is very different to the ‘multicultural’ where cultures are subordinated by the dominant culture hierarchically.
Then BHM is not for (black) people on the other side of the fence. It is for all people groups. If you are a Brit or live in Britain, BHM is for you!
In this case, if BHM is to be taken seriously, are we not celebrating the signal contributions that people of African descent have made to the Britain we have today? (In my talk, for instance, I focussed on the contributions of the Windrush generation.) Then shouldn’t the multiculture of the UK engage the best of each other’s cultures to make the UK a more transparent and inclusive place?
That’s largely my take on BHM. How’s BHM with you?