The Defense Intelligence Agency just “paused” Black History Month celebrations.
And Google? They just quietly removed Black History Month, along with other cultural celebrations, from their calendars because it “wasn’t sustainable.”
Not sustainable? The accomplishments of Black Americans aren’t sustainable enough for your digital calendar?
Let me gather my thoughts.
The Digital Erasure of Black History
Every February, like clockwork, my social media feeds fill up with the same debate about whether we should even have Black History Month. But in 2025, we’re having a whole different conversation.
We’ve gone from debating the purpose of Black History Month to watching it literally being erased from our digital landscape. First the DIA, then Google.
Who’s next to decide that celebrating African American history is too much work?
As a Black woman who has spent years in DEI, let me tell you what’s really happening here. This isn’t about sustainability or scalability.
This is white privilege doing what it does best – masquerading as “practicality” and “colorblindness.”
From Negro History Week to Now… or Back?
Let’s talk about historian Carter G. Woodson for a minute. When he created Negro History Week in the second week of February (chosen to align with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln), he wasn’t trying to limit our history. This Black historian, this African American educator, was trying to light a fire.
Following decades later, President Gerald Ford expanded it to African American History Month. The goal wasn’t just to celebrate Black figures. It was to force U.S. history to acknowledge that Black history IS American history.
Now here we are, watching institutions try to dim that light one “pause” at a time.
Beyond the Highlight Reel
I appreciate seeing Black students at Kent State University and other schools reciting speeches about civil rights activists. I love that high school students are learning about the study of African American life.
But why are we still acting like our story starts with slavery and ends with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.?
The Black community’s story isn’t a greatest hits album of the Civil Rights Movement. We’re not just a collection of first-time achievements and “only Black person to…” stories.
Our history runs deep in every aspect of American society, from the end of the Civil War through the Harlem Renaissance and beyond.
The Reality of “Progress”
Yes, I know Morgan Freeman once said he doesn’t want a Black History Month. And yes, some folks in the African American community feel that having our own history month somehow separates us from the main menu of American history.
I hear that. But let’s be real about where we are:
- Until our history books accurately reflect the full contributions of Black people
- Until affirmative action isn’t viewed as a handout rather than a hand-up
- Until Black educators aren’t the only ones teaching our own history
- Until people of color don’t have to fight for basic recognition
- Until white people understand that there’s no such thing as “white history month” because that’s just called “history class”
We need this time period of focused attention.
The Systematic Erasure
In recent years, we’ve watched a coordinated attack on anything that makes certain folks uncomfortable. One minute they’re banning critical race theory, the next they’re saying maintaining cultural celebrations isn’t “sustainable.”
The clear search of Black history from these platforms isn’t an accident. It’s part of a pattern.
When institutions can simply send feedback that says “Sorry, celebrating ethnic groups is too much work,” we have to ask: What kind of social change are we really seeing? How far have we really come since the time period when Carter G. Woodson first launched his study of Negro life?
Moving Forward
The Black Lives Matter movement didn’t emerge from nowhere. It’s a response to centuries of racial segregation and white supremacy that still impact Black communities today.
And these latest moves to erase our celebrations? They’re just proving why we need these movements in the first place.
The problem with Black History Month isn’t the month itself or that it falls in the shortest month of the year. It’s that in 2025, we still need it. And with these new policies trying to silence our voices, maybe we need it now more than ever.
So yeah, I’m going to keep celebrating Black History Month. I’m going to keep pushing for the day when every month is a celebration of Black American history when every classroom teaches about both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, and when every workplace understands that diversity isn’t just a February thing.
Because at the end of the day, this isn’t just about maintaining a list of historical figures or marking the birthdays of Frederick Douglass.
It’s about recognizing that Black resistance and the fight for true inclusion isn’t something you can just remove from a calendar. It’s an ongoing struggle that deserves more than 28 days of attention.
And to Google, the DIA, and anyone else thinking about erasing our history, remember this: You can remove us from your calendars, but you can’t remove us from history.
We’re here, we’ve been here, and we’re not going anywhere.
That’s not just sustainable. It’s inevitable.
