(long-ish note ahead)
recently, i feel like i've been screaming into the ether, but it's 3am on a friday over here, and i'm here to remind y'all that february is black history month. this place feels a bit dead lately, but i'll always emphasize the importance of diversifying your knowledge. i'll speak from the perspective of an artist since this is a place for art. i'm a black writer, and i've seen the glaring difference in the reception of bipoc stories everywhere. how racism still permeates different aspects despite recent progress. how companies and organizations occasionally promote these voices just so they can give themselves a nice little pat on the back, but not much else.
several artists of color have become vocal about feeling disregarded/unseen/unappreciated/attacked, and/or about how hard they have to push to beat stereotypes and reach certain heights, especially when compared to their white colleagues. people like to propel stories with certain races in certain months of the year, curate tbrs and reading lists, feel like they're contributing to something, etc etc. but i'm here to say again, like i did last year, that support should be year-round. awareness of these people shouldn't be limited. awareness of the black romances, black horror, black thrillers, and so on, shouldn't be limited to february. it's not enough to push these stories and documented experiences in people's faces for 28–31 days a year, only to eventually push them aside.
people of color exist. they're real. they're beautiful. they deserve to be heard. they deserve to be recognized. RACISM AND EVERYTHING THAT COMES WITH IT ISN'T DEAD. educate yourselves accordingly, all year, every year.
happy black history month <3
