Wednesday, February 01, 2023

The Kids Are Alright

The College Board revises it’s African American studies course because old white people are upset.
The course has been popular among students in schools where it has been introduced. At Baton Rouge Magnet High School in Louisiana, so many students were interested that Emmitt Glynn is teaching it to two classes, instead of just the one he was originally planning. 
Earlier this week, his students read selections of "The Wretched of the Earth" by Frantz Fanon, which deals with the violence inherent in colonial societies. In a lively discussion, students connected the text to what they had learned about the conflict between colonizers and Native Americans, to the war in Ukraine and to police violence in Memphis, Tennessee. 
"We've been covering the gamut from the shores of Africa to where we are now in the 1930s, and we will continue on through history," Glynn said. He said he was proud to see the connections his students were making between the past and now. 
For Malina Ouyang, 17, taking the class helped fill gaps in what she has been taught. "Taking this class," she said, "I realized how much is not said in other classes." 
Matthew Evans, 16, said the class has educated him on a multitude of perspectives on Black history. He said the political controversy is just "a distraction." 
"Any time you want to try to silence something, you will only make someone want to learn about it even more," he said.
The Lovely Wife and I have noted (to each other) that we were never taught about the Tulsa Massacre, and were taught the Unpleasantness Between the States (it was actually presented as “The War Between the States”) was about states’ rights, and not anything else.

Knowledge will be neither suppressed nor denied, IOW. I suppose we should be grateful to Florida for wanting us all to be ignorant. Ignorance is really not as popular as it seems to be.

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