As another empowering Black History Month comes to a close, corporations set their social media accounts back to their default logos and regular hashtags. The once positive attitudes towards Black culture appreciation are now focused on world-renowned holidays such as Christmas, Hanukkah, and other festive days of other cultures.

With such an important month, some groups within the Black community are wondering if 31 days are enough. To hear other perspectives on the matter I walked around the Universities at Medway campus to get students’ opinions.

Gladys (21) who is a 3rd year Social Work student had a lot to say, especially on the fact that Black History Month, outside the Black community, is only acknowledged once a year: “There are 365 days in a year and they only care about us for 31 of them. If they truly wanted to make a difference they would hear our voices and actually listen to what we want a need from them.”

Chris (23) who also studies Social Work in his 3rd year, agreed with Gladys, stating, ”It is like when you see a store with the Black Power fist in the window, it’s like they’re trying to buy our business for the time we are supposed to be uplifted the most.”

They mention a great point about performative activism, which can be defined as “a pejorative term referring to activism done to increase one’s social capital rather than because of one’s devotion to a cause, often associated with surface-level activism.”

Students feel that corporations, businesses, and universities have a tendency to make money off of people as they “perform” for the cause, treating things like a trend.

In all, these students have spoken. One month to acknowledge the people in the Black community that has contributed so much to our society today is not, and never will be enough. Their influence has lived on for decades and deserved to be recognized all throughout the year, not just October.