Heritage Months and the American Dilemma

Don't be anxious about Black History Month

It is Black History Month, and some folks are confused. They see it as a sign of wokeness or something that is mysteriously somehow oppositional to whites. And they blame it on the different celebratory months that have crowed the official calendars in the federal government and the states. The last point is the only one that has some merit: other groups have copied Black History Month in their pushes for recognition from the government, and politicians have obliged them.

America has a unique problem celebrating diversity. Americans are simultaneously very welcoming of immigrants and weird about it. Immediately, Americans try to fit folks into racialized identity boxes, and this is not a product of “wokeness,” but rather, it is a tradition old as the Constitution; Americans have been doing this without fail since 1790 and the first census. Two hundred years of this has been unhealthy as it creates anxiety and supports othering and resentment. The heritage months beginning with Black History Month can be misunderstood in the context of our national identity confusion.

The Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, wanted to make a point of not emphasizing the months, including Black History Month, probably because he knows little about how Black History Month began, and the Department of Defense issued an antagonistic memo announcing "Identity Months Dead at DoD” which coming on January 31, the day before the start of Black History Month was only going to be seen as an insult.

It goes on from there.

But the same day, the White House issued a proclamation announcing Black History Month 2025 in the name of President Trump.

Donald Trump, President of the United States, apparently has no problem with Black History Month or the appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities. The President of the United States understands that Black History is not DEI. So why the confusion from Hegseth? Who knows, but it is not unusual for someone to ask why there is no “white history month.” Well, there are, and now is a good time to go over these months.

So we have Black History Month, a tradition that did not begin with the government but became the government model for all of the following:

• March is Irish American Heritage Month. I tell this to my students when they ask why there isn’t a “White History Month.” It’s March; the Irish whites have a month, I joke. But what I am telling them is true. My Irish American students have no clue this month exists, to which I remark that “it is not Black people's problem if you don’t celebrate your month” with a smile; my students love my jokes. With a wink, I say, “No one’s stopping you after Congress designated March as Irish-American Heritage Month back in 1990 when George H. W. Bush was president.” It is no longer a new thing. Interestingly, Secretary of Defense Hegseth did not mention Irish American Heritage Month when it listed the cultural awareness months that the DoD would not ignore.