Black Excellence: Week Four

A lot has changed in 60 years, but, sadly, a lot has stayed the same.

I can still remember so many questionable moments in public school education that I carry with me to this day. . . The “name this famous person in black history” game played for 20 school mornings in the third grade. Not sure if I should feel pride in myself for “winning” every day, or embarrassed for the teachers and their students who guessed “MLK” for every man, and “Harriet Tubman” for every woman. I brought in my official US post office black history stamp collection to help bridge the gap, but I was only 9, and only 1 of 25 actually cared.

Then there was that moment in 8th grade civics when we were learning about “the Left,” “the Right,” revolutionaries and radicals. Our very excellent teacher hesitantly sketched out a swastika denouncing the evils of the klan and plotted “KKK” on the far right of his graphic. Afterwards he immediately chalked out “BPP” on the far left, declaring the black panthers as the Klan’s radical equivalent. I didn’t have the words to contest these “facts” at the time. Yet my 15-year-old brain knew he had gotten it wrong. So much so that the lesson is still burned in my memory 25 years later.  

I regularly see posts from parents in my region highlighting snippets of questionable curriculum in their middle schoolers text right now in 2021, some favorites of mine explaining emigration patterns from various continents to the US (including Africa in the 1600s as though it were a choice) and how Blacks in the 1700’s came to settle in parts of the eastern shore because “work was plentiful there!”  My child is only just beginning to transition into that ‘read to learn’ phase in her education. We frequently must remind her that just because it is written in a book, does not make it fact.

Especially during this month, when first grade instruction leaves much to be desired in the way of highlighting BLACK EXCELLENCE, I take it upon myself to sprinkle glittery jewels of black pride, black magical words, and sweet morsels of tasty sound bites into her ear to make sure she has the words to speak truth into being, and task her teachers to do the same. I feel such pride in knowing that one of my go-to texts is written by a fellow Wahoo! Little Leaders by Vashti Harrison is a must have for every American child in its assuring that the history and legacy of black girl magic does not go unacknowledged.

For more on the black panther party, check out Judas and the Black Messiah, HBO max March 14.