{"id":107754,"date":"2025-02-05T16:02:58","date_gmt":"2025-02-06T00:02:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/02\/05\/how-not-to-celebrate-black-history-month-in-2025\/"},"modified":"2025-02-05T16:02:58","modified_gmt":"2025-02-06T00:02:58","slug":"how-not-to-celebrate-black-history-month-in-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/02\/05\/how-not-to-celebrate-black-history-month-in-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"How Not To Celebrate Black History Month In 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Black History Month feels a little different in 2025. The White House proclamation<\/a> announcing the annual event described Black history as a celebration of, specifically, Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman\u2026 and Thomas Sowell and Clarence Thomas. I\u2019m sure Douglass and Tubman would be overjoyed to find themselves lumped in with these guys. In addition to these four, the only other actual Black person Trump could even think of to name as a representative of centuries of Black history in America was Tiger Woods because\u2026 golf. From 1619 until today, this administration came up with mostly guys who are still alive. And by mostly, we mean literally 3\/5ths of Trump\u2019s statement.<\/p>\n

But some law firms are keeping the celebration alive\u2026 in the most bewildering way possible. Over on Reddit, a post explains how a firm asked a minority attorney to speak at its Black History Month event. There\u2019s only one problem:<\/p>\n

\n

Firm is putting together a black history month event. They want me to speak at it.. only issue is\u2026 I\u2019m not black?? I\u2019m not sure why they picked me (I am a minority but I\u2019m not black). IMO, I\u2019m not the person that should be speaking at this event. Idk why they didn\u2019t select a black attorney to run the event. We have a few so it\u2019s not like they can\u2019t ask them. Some people are just so disconnected.. like I\u2019m glad they are hosting an event to go over the history of African Americans.. but wtf why do yall want me of all people to speak on it??? Just bc I\u2019m a minority? Like who even approved this \ud83d\ude2d\ud83d\ude2d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The assault upon DEI efforts both within the government<\/a> and the private sector<\/a> are just opening moves in cultivating a legal regime to favor hostile work environments for women and minorities. But there\u2019s also an internal attack on DEI when administrators do exactly this sort of thing that allows conservatives to mock DEI initiatives. A genuine commitment to DEI on the occasion of Black History Month should \u2014 at the very least \u2014 involve Black people<\/em> instead of lumping minorities into a monolithic group. Such actions not only trivialize the distinct histories and cultures within minority groups but makes DEI look comically superficial.<\/p>\n

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<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Most DEI administrators are actually good at their jobs. But this is the sort of misconception that can multiply whenever one of these projects goes awry. It doesn\u2019t take many missteps to birth a narrative.<\/p>\n

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<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sure, involving an outside speaker would beat having overworked attorneys take time out of their billable day to take on the mantle of \u201cMayor of Black People\u201d for the day. But no matter how bad that may be, it\u2019s not as bad as asking the random other minority kid to serve a term as the Mayor because the firm thinks that\u2019s close enough.<\/p>\n

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<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And that\u2019s the distinction. It\u2019s not improper and indeed probably good to involve non-Black folks in these events. But it matters what role<\/em> they have in the event. It probably shouldn\u2019t be \u201cthe one explaining the Black experience.\u201d This seems a bit like a reverse engineered event, where the firm decided on the format before figuring out who would be doing it and whether or not the whole gathering should be changed based on who\u2019s available. Effective planning will require flexibility to develop the curriculum around the voices interested in participating.<\/p>\n

This is a precarious time for diversity and if firms want to make it to the other side of this administration, they\u2019re going to have to make sure these issues carry more than symbolic value. And alienating both Black and non-Black minorities over a holiday presentation is the sort of thing that does more harm than good.<\/p>\n

The post How Not To Celebrate Black History Month In 2025<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Black History Month feels a little different in 2025. The White House proclamation<\/a> announcing the annual event described Black history as a celebration of, specifically, Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman\u2026 and Thomas Sowell and Clarence Thomas. I\u2019m sure Douglass and Tubman would be overjoyed to find themselves lumped in with these guys. In addition to these four, the only other actual Black person Trump could even think of to name as a representative of centuries of Black history in America was Tiger Woods because\u2026 golf. From 1619 until today, this administration came up with mostly guys who are still alive. And by mostly, we mean literally 3\/5ths of Trump\u2019s statement.<\/p>\n

But some law firms are keeping the celebration alive\u2026 in the most bewildering way possible. Over on Reddit, a post explains how a firm asked a minority attorney to speak at its Black History Month event. There\u2019s only one problem:<\/p>\n

\n

Firm is putting together a black history month event. They want me to speak at it.. only issue is\u2026 I\u2019m not black?? I\u2019m not sure why they picked me (I am a minority but I\u2019m not black). IMO, I\u2019m not the person that should be speaking at this event. Idk why they didn\u2019t select a black attorney to run the event. We have a few so it\u2019s not like they can\u2019t ask them. Some people are just so disconnected.. like I\u2019m glad they are hosting an event to go over the history of African Americans.. but wtf why do yall want me of all people to speak on it??? Just bc I\u2019m a minority? Like who even approved this \ud83d\ude2d\ud83d\ude2d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The assault upon DEI efforts both within the government<\/a> and the private sector<\/a> are just opening moves in cultivating a legal regime to favor hostile work environments for women and minorities. But there\u2019s also an internal attack on DEI when administrators do exactly this sort of thing that allows conservatives to mock DEI initiatives. A genuine commitment to DEI on the occasion of Black History Month should \u2014 at the very least \u2014 involve Black people<\/em> instead of lumping minorities into a monolithic group. Such actions not only trivialize the distinct histories and cultures within minority groups but makes DEI look comically superficial.<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Most DEI administrators are actually good at their jobs. But this is the sort of misconception that can multiply whenever one of these projects goes awry. It doesn\u2019t take many missteps to birth a narrative.<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sure, involving an outside speaker would beat having overworked attorneys take time out of their billable day to take on the mantle of \u201cMayor of Black People\u201d for the day. But no matter how bad that may be, it\u2019s not as bad as asking the random other minority kid to serve a term as the Mayor because the firm thinks that\u2019s close enough.<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And that\u2019s the distinction. It\u2019s not improper and indeed probably good to involve non-Black folks in these events. But it matters what role<\/em> they have in the event. It probably shouldn\u2019t be \u201cthe one explaining the Black experience.\u201d This seems a bit like a reverse engineered event, where the firm decided on the format before figuring out who would be doing it and whether or not the whole gathering should be changed based on who\u2019s available. Effective planning will require flexibility to develop the curriculum around the voices interested in participating.<\/p>\n

This is a precarious time for diversity and if firms want to make it to the other side of this administration, they\u2019re going to have to make sure these issues carry more than symbolic value. And alienating both Black and non-Black minorities over a holiday presentation is the sort of thing that does more harm than good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Black History Month feels a little different in 2025. The White House proclamation announcing the annual event described Black history as a celebration of, specifically, Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman\u2026 and Thomas Sowell and Clarence Thomas. I\u2019m sure Douglass and Tubman would be overjoyed to find themselves lumped in with these guys. In addition to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":107755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-05-at-2.48.06E280AFPM-1024x408-MawGVj.png?fit=1024%2C408&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}