I grew up during the civil rights movement in the 60s. I watched (albeit at a young age) Newark burn and saw MLK assassinated. I was being educated at the same time in public school, and learned about slavery, Jim Crow and the issues blacks had faced upon coming to the US as slaves. It was not a 'detailed' analysis of the issue, but it w…
I grew up during the civil rights movement in the 60s. I watched (albeit at a young age) Newark burn and saw MLK assassinated. I was being educated at the same time in public school, and learned about slavery, Jim Crow and the issues blacks had faced upon coming to the US as slaves. It was not a 'detailed' analysis of the issue, but it was in my eyes and the eyes of most of my classmates wrong.
However, I was never made to feel either responsible nor guilty for the actions of ancestors long dead. Nor was I taught that I was inherently worth more (privileged) or that blacks were worth less. And so I've never felt that way about myself or about them. Back then, a lot of us had a dream. Today, not so much.
It's troubling in the extreme to have watched the progress that the minority community has made in this country, which to be clear in the 60s was VERY racist, the sacrifices that great men and women made in order to overcome that racism, and to now come full circle back to where we started, IE all whites are inherently racist and need to relearn how to be 'anti racist'.
Personally, I reject that teaching out of hand. I'll not honor the memory of the civil rights leaders who died to bring about the changes this country needed to make by telling their offspring that I'm a racist and they are victims of my racism. The only people that benefits are people with a lust for political power.
Teach sections on the black experience in schools. That is done in my district during black history month, and if the curriculum isn't deemed detailed enough, tweak it so that it is. But under no circumstances make one race feel guilty and the other feel like victims. That way leads to division, not inclusion. And is antithetical to the efforts of all those great civil rights leaders of the past.
I grew up during the civil rights movement in the 60s. I watched (albeit at a young age) Newark burn and saw MLK assassinated. I was being educated at the same time in public school, and learned about slavery, Jim Crow and the issues blacks had faced upon coming to the US as slaves. It was not a 'detailed' analysis of the issue, but it was in my eyes and the eyes of most of my classmates wrong.
However, I was never made to feel either responsible nor guilty for the actions of ancestors long dead. Nor was I taught that I was inherently worth more (privileged) or that blacks were worth less. And so I've never felt that way about myself or about them. Back then, a lot of us had a dream. Today, not so much.
It's troubling in the extreme to have watched the progress that the minority community has made in this country, which to be clear in the 60s was VERY racist, the sacrifices that great men and women made in order to overcome that racism, and to now come full circle back to where we started, IE all whites are inherently racist and need to relearn how to be 'anti racist'.
Personally, I reject that teaching out of hand. I'll not honor the memory of the civil rights leaders who died to bring about the changes this country needed to make by telling their offspring that I'm a racist and they are victims of my racism. The only people that benefits are people with a lust for political power.
Teach sections on the black experience in schools. That is done in my district during black history month, and if the curriculum isn't deemed detailed enough, tweak it so that it is. But under no circumstances make one race feel guilty and the other feel like victims. That way leads to division, not inclusion. And is antithetical to the efforts of all those great civil rights leaders of the past.