It’s no suprise that the American school system needs major reform, but there is an abundant ignorance that comes along with teaching Black History during the K-12 grades.
The narrative of African American history is that black Americans are only capable of changing history when it is central to their own liberation. That Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, and Martin Luther are the only important figures of black history, And that black people choose to assimiliate to American culture rather than they were forced to in order to survive.
That is why Malcolm x and the black Panthers are often rarely discussed in detail. The idea of militant protesting and refusal to demand or live on the scraps of white people, was frowned upon them, as it is ignored now.
When that one month of black history comes around and children are only told of the favored few, the “peaceful ones” who demanded unity amongst all races, as opposed to the full history of black people, the history itself becomes diluted. White washed into only showing the peaceful soft and kind hearted movements as opposed to the neccesary ones.
Much too often are quotes taken from Dr. Martin Luther King and used to enforce the same racism that Dr. King himself fought against.
Which really begs the question, are people actually learning from this cirriculum or are they just memorizing. If they were learning the would be aware of how history is currently repeating itself, and yet they find themselves on the same side that they once viewed as the enemy.
Upon asking any historian why we study history you will often be told “history is the study of how the past became the present” or that “history always repeats itself”. Does this not imply that the purpose of history in school is to prevent this repetition and understand how the world we live in is shaped? So than why is it that we learn about Germany’s genocide, but barely America’s? Why are we taught about how great and important the American revolution was, but barely about how important the civil rights movement was. And we’re taught about the evils of Stalin, but barely the evils of the Confederate. How the Boston tea party was a success, but the Baltimore riots were a failure. America is very selective with its messages and whom democracy applies to. It’s almost like as if America doesn’t care if this history repeats itself.
Not that those histories are not important. But those histories are considered part of the curriculum, while things which are actually “American history’ are censored.
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