The day before the law was to take effect, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction blocking its most controversial provisions. Not long after I arrived in the US, in 2003, some white Americans would challenge me over my opposition to the Iraq war, referring to it as a form of appeasement. Like this teacher who told her students that Dr. Martin Luther King committed suicide. These are the three lessons whitewashing has denied us. One of the most salient lessons of black American history is the effectiveness of solidarity. Black History Month facts. I’m sorry my dude did you just say ✌indentured servants from Africa✌ https://t.co/R9pvSCpj8u, — Imani Gandy (@AngryBlackLady) February 10, 2019. We must forget that George Washington was a slave owner … and simply remember the things we regard as creditable and inspiring. Whitewashing Black History Month. A few weeks ago, officials went into schools and "confiscated" seven books from the classrooms deemed to promote "ethnic resentment". With all of the teaching certifications and professional development, diversity and inclusion trainings, and Black history month celebrations that they see every February, some White teachers are insensitive to and can’t get our history right. Certainly not when our kids are taught a very whitewashed history of Black people in America. We have legislators dropping facts about our history. Education is the antidote. But thank God we have people combating this foolishness. It's not. Black History Month, which begins today in the US, gives us all a chance to rescue stories that have been discarded, correct stories that have been mistold and elevate stories that have been downplayed. Black people ain’t laughin’ at all! At The Black Wall Street Times, we believe access is the new civil right. There are teachers around the country who are expressing how beautiful their Black is by decorating their classrooms with Black art because our kids need to see positive images and representation of themselves. Not that there isn't plenty to be resentful about. If you still do not see your comment appear, please feel free to contact us at [email protected]. NFL players writing and publishing books that encourage Black boys to push past the labels and stereotypes society has placed on them. She WAY outta line for this pic.twitter.com/19nsHo5REs, — Joe Palmer (@Joep153045) February 12, 2019. Much gratitude to those educators who are making all students feel safe and accepted and in their classrooms. Because our education system whitewashes history. Get our weekly action email and join us in asking #HowAreTheChildren. #Teachers and #edleaders carry the hope for a better future.#Love#WeLeadEd pic.twitter.com/u4zGE15IMv, — Victor Tam (@PrincipalTam) February 13, 2019. Gary Younge. They have the capacity to help fight racism, oppression and inequity but also the ability to endorse it and perpetuate the dehumanization of people of color. (Disclaimer: my wife is the director of the Education for Liberation Network, which is involved in the campaign.) But thank God we have people combating this foolishness. Then there were these teachers in New York who thought it would be funny to display images of nooses in their classrooms and call them “back to school necklaces.” Are you kidding me?! She also said anyone who doesn’t love Trump isn’t a real Christian and that the Black boys in the class were destined to go to prison because of the clothes they were wearing. Who’s more excited, Shenea or Ms. A (a Fisk alumna)? asked Cooper. "It is he who decides to which facts to give the floor, and in what order or context … It is the historian who has decided for his own reasons that Caesar's crossing of that petty stream, the Rubicon, is a fact of history, whereas the crossing of the Rubicon by millions of other people before or since interests nobody at all.". And real quick Ralph, if you truly believe our ancestors came over here for the aforementioned benefits, it’s 2019 and we still haven’t gotten our 40 acres and a mule. Stop Whitewashing Black History Month. As a matter of fact, I bet you it’s idiotic teachers like these that have Ralph Northam thinking Africans came to America as indentured servants. Given that my ancestors were taken to Barbados as slaves, and then immigrated to Britain as colonial subjects, this seemed a peculiar charge. Because America was built on the backs of slaves & their descendants STILL haven't secured equal economic & political power due to systemic white supremacy. While we never censor based on political or ideological viewpoints, we do not publish comments that are off-topic, offensive, or include personal attacks. Early 20th-century black British history is as important as Windrush. The Tucson Unified School District, where 60% of the students are Latino, will today be forced to shut down its Mexican American studies program or lose as much as $14m of funding from Arizona state. As a matter of fact, I bet you it’s idiotic teachers like these that have Ralph Northam thinking Africans came to America as indentured servants. Ever since, the organization has played a pivotal role in defending civil rights all throughout history #BlackHistoryMonth pic.twitter.com/FvurdPbYvb, — Senator Nikema Williams (@NikemaForSenate) February 12, 2019. Her mission is to use her education, passion and experience to empower marginalized populations. Not when some of our kids have to attend schools named after Confederate leaderswho fought a war to keep our ancestors enslaved. But, it’s not far off. ‘She was trying to put us black kids down’: Sub resigns after class says she spread MLK conspiracy theory https://t.co/AaF6E9rHOn. Now, you could’ve been living under a rock your entire life but the first things you’ll learn once you crawl out is, you have to pay taxes and MLK was assassinated. pic.twitter.com/BXj22rJGqK, — Butler College Prep (@BeNobleButler) January 24, 2019. Partial, interconnected, necessary, it is simply the world's history told either about or through the prism of a particular group of people. A1 (2): For us to make a better world, we need to focus on #Education because it is then that we can open the minds and hearts of our children. "If it were not for you, I'd be speaking Yoruba.". https://t.co/6AJTC4HWho, — Ahmed Baba (@AhmedBaba_) February 6, 2019. Work that out. Black History Month is a crucial time for reflecting on the ways Black Americans have contributed to American society. But if history were simply a collection of facts, we could get computers to do it. Social justice advocates have launched a teach-in campaign, "No History is Illegal", starting today to protest the measure. "We should be teaching these kids that this is the land of opportunity and that if they work hard they can achieve their dreams," he told CNN's Anderson Cooper recently. pic.twitter.com/BXj22rJGqK, — Butler College Prep (@BeNobleButler) January 24, 2019. Tanesha Peeples is the Deputy Director of Outreach for Education Post. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! You have a generation of youth so desensitized to it that they don't understand the graphic nature." Because America was built on the backs of slaves & their descendants STILL haven't secured equal economic & political power due to systemic white supremacy. In short, these measures seek not to teach history but to preach nationalist mythology, aimed at raising not so much open-minded critical thinkers as blind patriots. As a matter of fact, I bet you it’s idiotic teachers like these that have, Certainly not when our kids are taught a very, And I’m calling these people Klansmen because teaching our kids to question and hate who they are while simultaneously denying them access to a quality education and feeding them into the, They’re murdering their culture, existence and potential while also perpetuating slavery—, There are teachers around the country who are expressing how beautiful their Black is by, For Black history month, some educators and students participated in the, Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), told her students that Dr. Martin Luther King committed suicide, decorating their classrooms with Black art, “Black Lives Matter at School” week of action, writing and publishing books that encourage Black boys, guiding their students towards HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities), Jussie Smollett charged with felony for allegedly faking hate crime, Brilliant illustrations of blackness; Onoja’s oil paintings are breathtaking, Two police shootings of women, one White the other Black, two very different outcomes, Black Family Structure in Decline Since the 1960s: The Home Effect, Candace Owens tried Cardi B and got verbally slayed, Candace Owens downplays Ahmaud Arbery's murder on Twitter, Oklahoma Attorney General wants Julius Jones to die quietly, Remembering Isaiah Shoels, the black Columbine victim, AG seeks delay in releasing Breonna Taylor grand jury files, Trump to far-right extremists: ‘Stand back and stand by’, What May Not be Discussed at Tonight’s Debate, Former celebrity assistant to Rotimi of STARZ’s ‘Power’ releases memoir titled “No Damn Excuse”, NY Times: Trump paid $750 in US income taxes in 2016, 2017. "What we want to do is to create a society in which everybody is working for a better tomorrow," he said. As in its policing (the state's stop-and-search laws were copied in more stringent form in other states), so in education: Arizona could set a dangerous precedent that might be used against women's studies, queer studies and, yes, Black History Month. #noose #hanging #lynching https://t.co/HCHyP4mGni, — TheNobleJournalist (@noblejonesontv) February 12, 2019. His action has Hispanic critics saying they feel their culture is under attack – and has students in a well-established, well-liked program feeling dejected. Better Conversation, Black History Month, Black Lives Matter at School, Black students, Hope + Outrage, institutional racism, racism, School to Prison Pipeline, slavery, Systemic Racism, Tanesha Peeples, White teachers. ", The other key supporter of the ban, Arizona attorney general Tom Horne, insists the problem with Mexican American studies is that discrimination is a "downer". "It offers teaching strategies and readings teachers can use to help students think about the perspectives that are too often silenced in the traditional curriculum …, "The only other time a book of mine was banned was in 1968, when the apartheid government in South Africa banned 'Strangers in Their Own Country', a curriculum I'd written that included a speech by then-imprisoned Nelson Mandela.".