The greeting that opens February on the American internet, and the annual meme cycle that comes with it: the celebratory posts, the reaction images, the brands logging on with a graphic and logging off with the replies, and the running joke that the shortest month got the assignment. Black History Month itself dates from 1976 in the US; the online ritual of saying it on the first of the month, with a picture, settled on Twitter in the early 2010s and moved to TikTok and Instagram from around 2020. Comes back every year, which is the point.
For the record: February is the American and Canadian month. The UK and Ireland keep it in October, so the greeting turns up twice a year on the timeline and confuses everyone the second time.
I remember when it was just a tweet. Now it has a format, a sound, a brand-apology subgenre and a countdown on the 28th. Twenty-eight days, twenty-nine in a good year. The joke about the shortest month is older than most of the accounts making it.
Seen this morning, as every year: the greeting under a photo of Barack Obama, the greeting under a photo of a random man in a suit that people are pretending is historic, and a fast-food account trying it. All before 9am.
Three things happen on 1 February: people post it sincerely, people post it with a picture of a celebrity looking pleased, and a brand posts it with a graphic that was signed off in November. The replies to the third one are the actual content.
What does it mean? Write it the way you would say it out loud.
