This month saw the annual celebration of Black History Month (BHM). Despite the importance of such a month, the publicity surrounding events being hosted by groups at Carleton didn’t match that of many other awareness campaigns.
Carleton’s Gender and Sexuality Resource Centre, the Institute of African Studies Student Association, the Carleton University Students’ Association’s (CUSA) Race, Ethnicity and Cultural (REC) Hall, and CUSA’s Womyn’s Centre partnered to host seven events celebrating queer black students at Carleton. The REC Hall put on two more events to celebrate the month. The departments of history and African studies also hosted events. But none of these were very widely publicized by the university or CUSA—only one of them was retweeted on CUSA’s Twitter page.
Other campus groups—such as Athletics, the Rideau River Residence Association, and the Graduate Students’ Association—all have a responsibility to share in promoting important awareness months such as BHM. Simply hosting events is not enough. All groups on campus must ensure BHM gets the attention it deserves by advertising events, but also educating students on campus who aren’t likely to plan to attend. This can be done by working together to improve awareness campaigns, using social media more frequently, and promoting events the same way other events which aren’t annual or nationwide like BHM are.
There is still work to be done in black history education, evidenced by a lack of awareness among students of events such as Africville, the Sir George William Protest Riots of 1969, or Viola Desmond.
BHM at Carleton has the potential to educate students about topics such as these—to celebrate and better understand their history. Students need to be aware of this month and take advantage of the opportunities available to learn.
