I knew it had to be Black History Month when I casually flipped through the pages of a local black newspaper the first week of February. Corporations aren't the only ones that cash in on Black History Month. Publishers quickly shove all their black titles into their catalogues. Bookstores haul out hefty displays of black books and place them in conspicuous public view. Black speakers hike their fees for the month and know that the universities and colleges will pay what they ask.
Politicians designate special days, issue proclamations, and sponsor tributes to notable blacks.
TV executives squeeze most of their specials, documentaries and features on blacks into the month. But packaging and selling black achievements is nothing new. For brief moments, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Black Panthers also became hot sale items. So there is no reason to think that Black History Month could escape the same fate. The problem is that black history is a sale item for only one month.