Ashton Hewitt

Black History Month is, in all honesty, a month I find myself battling with. 

I love seeing pioneers across every sector recognised for their contributions, and the focus on representation and inclusion for the Black community.  But I also feel frustrated that, in many places, Black History Month is still a tokenistic window – the one month a year when Blackness is celebrated and acknowledged. 

It’s a month when I’m inundated with requests to tell my story, and those of my community and family.  Whether it’s my grandmother, the Windrush generation and everything they gave to this country, the handful of Black players who have pulled on the Welsh jersey, or Betty Campbell becoming Wales’s first Black headteacher, these stories deserve to be celebrated. I’ll always take the opportunity, but I can’t help wishing they mattered to everybody all year round, in every subject. 

What brings me the most joy, though, is seeing the people who celebrate it properly.  Those who use the occasion to amplify voices, and who, when you look closer, practice inclusion all year round, with Black history embedded in everything they do. That is what really matters.  

So, I’ll keep taking part, because I’ll never pass up a chance to celebrate people who have made, and continue to make, strides in what can be a difficult world for Black people to navigate. Black History Month means a lot to me – but what would mean more is a world that didn’t need it.