- We have a lot of times people saying,
oh, why do you need a black history month?
Why do you need every month to be black history month?
Why do you gotta have a month?
To be honest I think it's nice to have a month
to actually put down our weapons and just celebrate.
We've been fighting for so long,
October is a month that we party.
(upbeat music)
- [Producer] Hey, so I'm gonna say a phrase,
and all I want you to do is react to the phrase
and then explain your reaction.
So the phrase is, "Black History Month."
- October.
- Month than that.
- One time of the year, that I think
that I fully see myself represented everywhere.
- It's a time for us all to collectively come together
and just say I'm proud
and happy to be apart of this community.
- It's super important to me now
because there are a whole bunch of American and British
and just heroes worldwide who look like me.
And you don't learn about this in history class,
you don't learn about this just anywhere else.
You have to go out of your way
to find out all of this information.
- I suppose it's good,
it's 'cause we're learning about black history,
but I think it's kind of odd
that it's grouped into this one month.
- It's great to be represented,
but at the same time it's like,
it's not normally like this,
and then all these panels that people put together,
all these stories you hear of people putting on these,
I don't know, whether it's a podcast
or a panel and they're getting black talent
to host it and they're not getting properly paid to do it.
And it's just like a bit insidious.
- And then you get the weird parallel.
So it's like, oh, you've heard about Florence Nightingale.
Now it's time for Mary Seacole.
- It's really nice that we have
that time to collectively just really appreciate
where we've come from,
what people did to get us where we are today.
And I meant the struggle that we still have come in.
- It's a strange one.
I do love celebrating black culture,
but this should be every day.
- [Producer] After everything that's happened in 2020,
how do you think black history month
will be received this year?
- It's by no stretch of the imagination
that it's been a year
that has really highlighted what being black means.
- Some work has been done.
I hope some work has been done.
- We have gone through a lot of civil unrest
due to injustice.
And I think this black history month
is just an opportunity to bring all of that,
all of the education that we talk about,
here is the perfect opportunity.
- While they may have put the black square
or been like, yeah, we believe
that black lives matter, behind the scenes,
there's microaggressions,
there's black people not being able to advance,
there's all these stereotypes, people not being hired.
- I'm very concerned that
the right stories still won't get told.
And what I find is there's so much black pain,
stories that get shared and spoken about,
which is very important.
But I also need the black joy.
- There have been a lot of instances
that have happened this year,
where things happened in previous years,
it would have come and gone
and the new cycle would have moved on
but because there's nothing been happening but these things,
it's caused people to be a lot more mindful.
- I can't speak for all black people,
but it's like a lot of people are exhausted.
'Cause it's like, oh, we got this little taste of
what could happen if people realized that biases
and started treating people equally.
But now it seems like
we're kind of slowly going back to the old ways.
- This is probably one of the more important
black history months in recent memory
for me anyway, it's just our
opportunity to link everything together.
- I'm hoping it's like a way to unite in some way
or another, because I feel
like it will mean so much more
'cause of everything that's been going on.
It's been such a messy year
will be a great way to do escapism.
- We are a strong community, a strong set of people.
And I wanna use this year as a reclaiming year,
as a year to celebrate all that we are,
all that we withstand.
Not that we should have to withstand it,
but all that we have been through and yet we're still here.
We're still glowing, we're still producing amazing content,
we're still loving, we're still doing so much things.
We're here, we're still here and we're standing.
- [Producer] What are you hoping to take away
from black history month this year?
- It's tough.
- What I might even take away from the year
because I feel like
this whole year has been black history month.
- I'm hoping that this black history month
is more of an education piece than it has been previously.
- It would be good to have some representation
or begin to learn about British heroes that look like me.
- I know we've had a lot of pain, I think this year,
but I feel like in order to push through
and actually make change
you need to uncover all the ugliness
that's beyond this surface.
- Suddenly when black lives matter happened,
everyone suddenly cared about black content as well.
- They need to center black voices,
that's what needs to happen this black history month.
I don't wanna hear it from anybody else.
- And I'd like this to be a celebration
and a real acknowledgement of the great,
fantastic things that we do.
- And we should celebrate our blackness, our black joy,
our black friends, our black mothers, our black teachers,
brothers, husbands, sisters, whoever,
celebrate each other, hug each other.
It's to celebrate all that we are, all that we can be
and all that we will be in various forms.