*Mic check* (Ahem).
Educators: are you aware that next month is Black History Month? Have you asked your students, specifically your Black students, what they’d like to see and/or do for Black History Month? Or, do you plan on doing the least; that is reading brief bios of famous Black people during morning announcements, putting posters on the walls of the school and/or hosting a pot luck with staff, students and families – whereby Black people are in charge of cooking the food (doing the work as usual)?
This year, Black History Month will take place on the backdrop of an insurrection, which was an attempt at installing white rule and erasing the will of a multiracial/multicultural electorate – led by the activism of Black women.
While the events of January 6, 2021 were tragic and traumatizing, educators have an opportunity to provide students quality learning opportunities that infuse Black history into their content — whereby teaching Black history isn’t fitting a square peg in a round hole.
As educators, we have a unique opportunity to connect the dots between the history of violent white mobs that terrorize the country based on lies (which, essentially is what racism is based on) to the fight for Black liberation. In short, we can fight the power – right in their classrooms.
To put it in context for educators, “the power” is made up of politicians who denounce the truth of the 1619 Project in favor of a whitewashed history that conveniently omits the starring role white supremacy played in our nation’s CONTINUE READING: Fighting The Power: Black History Month And Beyond - Philly's 7th Ward
