0
0
One of the reasons I decided to begin to use this platform to talk about my racial equity process is that I feel like I have a worthwhile point to make, but it’s usually only being seen by my Facebook crew–at least half of which agrees with me already.
I was recently tagged by someone I’ll call Guy-Who-Tagged-Me. He and I have been arguing about BLM since BLM’s inception (Me: BLM supporter; Him: Not-a-BLM-supporter-even-a-little-bit, though I’ll add that he comes from a law enforcement family, which shaped his views differently from how my views have been shaped; it’s context that can’t be ignored).
Often, he and I interact too combatively for it to be possible to find a point from which we can start a meaningful discussion–something I want to return to having with him. While the past couple of weeks have been especially charged (I might have called him an asshole), I’m trying to de-escalate to where we can have a civilized conversation again, because we don’t think alike and he has not tuned me out.
No matter his intent for listening to my opinions–whether he’s trying to understand them or trying to argue against them at any given time–he’s looking at what I’m saying, and I want him to continue to look at it; and I want to continue to look at what he is saying, as well as what he’s using to support his claims.
Anyway, back to today’s point: the Morgan Freeman clip that people use to claim that we should stop talking about race.
Guy-Who-Tagged-Me tagged me on a post that included a video montage of a handful of Black men criticizing talking about race. I felt that at least some of his full post was sincere, so I said I’d take a look at the video and engage later.
After I watched the video he linked, I searched for longer individual clips of speakers so that I could see more of the original context of what a speaker was discussing. Today, I’m addressing specifically Morgan Freeman’s comments about Black History Month, which can be found in this longer clip of an interview:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zkka24Cu2w&w=560&h=315]
Freeman says he doesn’t want a Black history month–that we should get rid of it, because Black history is American history; and furthermore, in answering the next question, that the way to achieve Black-History-Is-American-History is to stop talking about race.
I have seen, over and over for the past several years, people within my community posting this video and saying things like, This famous guy said to stop talking about race! And we should listen to him because he’s Black! And Get rid of Black History Month! But by posting and using this example, endorsing the concept of dropping Black History Month because we shouldn’t relegate it to one month, people are suggesting that it will magically become Black-History-is-American-History all year round.
Where Freeman and I agree: Black history is American history.
Where Freeman and I disagree: that the way to get full Black representation in American history, all year round, is to stop talking about race.
To start: American history books were written by White men, and did not include honest, non-whitewashed Black history by default. Still much of it is whitewashed. For example, I grew up in and around Philly. Pennsylvania is named after the Penn Family. I was taught about the peaceful Quaker founder of PA, William Penn, and his sylvan woods. I was NOT taught that he was a slave owner. In fact, I found that out literally today. I am 44 years old and I grew up in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania learning whitewashed American “Oops, did we forget to mention he was a slave owner?” History.
People had to push for the inclusion of whitewashed Black history, and are still fighting today for the inclusion of authentic, accurate Black history like “Oh and peaceful Quaker Penn owned slaves.”
As for Black History Month, the choice was not so much
365/365 days of Black representation in American history
vs
28/365 days of Black representation in American history
as it was
28/365 days of Black representation in American history*
*during Black History Month
vs
7/365 days of Black representation in American history*
*during Black History Week
And decades earlier, it had been
7/365 days of Black representation in American history*
*during Black History Week
vs
pretty much 0/365 days of a year of Black representation in American history*
*AT ALL
The process went:
0/365 of Black representation in American history
*talks about race*
7/365 of Black representation in American history
*talks about race*
28/365 of Black representation in American history
WHAT THE TARGET SHOULD BE: 365/365 American history that includes authentic and equitable non-white representation.
In the interview, Freeman offers no steps for how to go from 28/365 to 365/365 of Black inclusion in American history without talking about race. You can’t get from 28 to 365 without intentionally adding in the 337. Just dropping Black History Month with no further action doesn’t accomplish that.
I can’t tell you a Black point of view here. I can say as a writer, linguist, translator, and mother, that representation is important–especially when it comes to children and young adults. If my daughter never sees “mighty” female voices in her picture books, young adult reading, and American history books, she could grow up under the impression that either women don’t have those stories, or that the stories women have don’t matter. But they do. And my daughter needs to see them.
I can also say, as a White mother: I want my child to learn about all of America’s history, white and non-white, 365/365 days of the year. I don’t want her to be under the impression that non-white Americans don’t have those stories, or that their stories do not matter. Because they do. And my daughter needs to see them.
I want Black history to be American history, too. To those arguing that we need to stop talking about race to get there: that’s not feasible.
Interested in stats on current representation in children’s books? Visit
https://blog.leeandlow.com/2018/05/10/the-diversity-gap-in-childrens-book-publishing-2018/
How about a recent article by historian Dr. Cynthia Greenlee, regarding slavery in textbooks?
https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/8/26/20829771/slavery-textbooks-history
Or maybe a brief summary of an academic article about racism in history books, which includes a link to the original journal article?
This post was edited for clarification on 14 June 2020.
