Black History Month: Honoring Legacy, Embracing Progress

This past Black History Month, the Black Student Union (BSU) demonstrated the significance of this time.

By: Aiden Harris and Anel Lua

Black History Month is an important time for many Black Student Union (BSU) students to celebrate and educate others about the rich and diverse history behind it. It’s a chance to honor the achievements and contributions of Black individuals throughout history while also bringing awareness to the challenges they have faced.

To the members of BSU, Black History Month holds great significance to them. 

Alyssa Vasquez, ‘26, says “We have our own special month to actually represent our culture, and not just the hardships that we went through with slavery, but the Black excellence and culture that we have now.” 

Another member, Drayton Hall, ‘27, says, “It means a lot being an Indigenous in [today’s] culture. [I’m] blessed to be a Black student-athlete, it’s a lot.”

The members also highlight the profound impact of Black culture society, noting its great influence on various aspects of modern life like music and fashion.

“We’ve influenced how [music, fashion, and entertainment] is portrayed, and before there were stereotypes of it,” says Vasquez.

Vasquez continues on saying that they were pioneers in hip-hop, rap, and R&B. 

BSU advisor Ms. Rodriguez says, “We can analyze fashion, street fashion, street culture, hip-hop culture, where people want to use terms like ‘urban culture’ when in reality it’s just taking Black culture and appropriating it.”

Rodriguez says that she wants to “emphasize and highlight how there [are] a lot of things that we probably don’t initiate or think about with Black culture,” such as jazz music. 

However, during Black History Month many misconceptions about its significance and origins tend to arise and spread over time. BSU is here to address and correct them to ensure that the true importance of the month is understood. 

Hall said one misconception about the month is that all African Americans are “ghetto.”

Hall says that is wrong and believes people only came up with that due to how they are portrayed on social media.

Vasquez says one another misconception about the month is that, “It’s just about slavery.”

“When people think [of] Black history, they just think of slavery rather than the things that we created,” says Vasquez.

Adding to the misconceptions, Ms. Rodriguez says that some people believe “this month is better than all the other months,” due to the emphasis placed on this specific time.

Ms. Rodriguez says, “You’re allowed to highlight a topic without saying other topics don’t matter.”

Black History Month matters not only to Black people, but to everyone. 

“I think it’s important to know [the] history in general,” says Ms. Rodriguez.

As a history teacher, Ms. Rodriguez says that she’s “always pushing history, specifically Black History Month. I think a lot of times we forget the exploited labor that was used, the labor that went into building this country, [and] the systems of oppression that still exist today.”

Rodriguez says, “[I want to] really highlight the Black excellence part of it, not the ‘Oh, well bad stuff happens,’ [but instead] let’s lean into this movement and highlight all the excellence that exists.”

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