Non-Blacks; Growing Up In School, Did Your Teachers Speak/Teach You of Black Culture At All?

[DCAllAfrican]

Did they acknowledge black history month?
Did they speak on the inventions that were believed to be created by blacks?
Did you speak about the slave trade?

Just curious

 

[hellaones]

 

[push kicks]

you have some sort of crazy facisnation with race dont you

 

[DCAllAfrican]

I am just interested in different upbringing, cultures, ways of thinking. So yes I do have a keen curiosity of race relation/issues.

 

[omgitswes]

what about if you're black and went to a predominantly white school?
if yes, then yes to all those questions. but about the black inventions they didn't really put much emphasis on the fact that they were black.

 

[infamousod]

went to predominantly hispanic school and we did the black history thing big time. the slave trade was always explained in american history class. MLK,Washington Carver, Fredrick Douglas all them dudes were beat into our heads.

 

[donfratrachelli]

Black History Month/Week was always hilarious to me growing up. It was the same names K-12 and not even delving very deep into any of them. It was basicallyGeorge Washington carver had the same name as one of our President and "invented" peanut butter (how you invent something that already exists asit's just basically crushed nuts in their own oil is beyond me, but I guess we also "discovered" a place with millions of people already theretoo), Harriet Tubman escaped slavery underground, MLK and Malcolm X made segregation go away, Thurgood Marshall was the first black Supreme Court judge,...

matching test...

back to your regularly scheduled European American History

 

[dtb00201]

yea we did....i had a real good history teacher 2....we didn't just do it during black history month though....we had a whole lesson on the civil rightsmovement and other important events all throughout the year

 

[dunknforce]

Originally Posted by dtb00201

yea we did....i had a real good history teacher 2....we didn't just do it during black history month though....we had a whole lesson on the civil rights movement and other important events all throughout the year

yup

 

[nikfiend]

Yeah as far as i can think back they've done a pretty good job respecting black history month..6th grade was OD with holocaust for me tho, spent damn nearhalf the year focusing just on that, a little too much time on just one thing imo

 

[gescobe]

yea we read a few novels/books about black culture like The Watson's go to Birmingham
Civil Rights movement, Slave trade, etc were all discussed.

 

[rexanglorum]

DCAllAmerican wrote:

---

Did they acknowledge black history month?
Did they speak on the inventions that were believed to be created by blacks?
Did you speak about the slave trade?

Just curious




I had a very good k-12 education and even though there were few blacks in the community and about half of the students were white, the history of blackAmericans came up regularly and not just in February but through the year in various grades and in different classes.

So to answer your first question, Black History Month was acknowledged but it was not needed because of the fact that the experiences of blacks were presentedthrough out the curriculum.

To answer the second question, yes we did and where we saw black contributions the most were not so much in technology as in culture. Black literature wasalways big part of any American literature units that we did over the years.

Finally, we did cover "the" slave trade (I use parenthesis because there were many slave trades through out the world and through out time), thetransatlantic slave trade. It came up not just in history but also in literature classes as well.


My experience with a relatively affluent and fairly white district is consistent with what David Loewen said about the teaching of history. Those who are inthe privates schools and the more affluent public school districts, those children who benefit the most from the status quo, can often times be challenged themost in their social science and literature curriculum. It is sad irony that the teaching of non white, non elite American and World History is usually donepoorly in districts where the kids there could benefit the most from quality teaching in that area.

 

[btk]

 

[mrmoneyindabank]

Originally Posted by push kicks

you have some sort of crazy facisnation with race dont you

Its a good question actually, how could we expect them to know if they were never taught?

 

[mrmoneyindabank]

Originally Posted by donfratrachelli

Black History Month/Week was always hilarious to me growing up. It was the same names K-12 and not even delving very deep into any of them. It was basically George Washington carver had the same name as one of our President and "invented" peanut butter (how you invent something that already exists as it's just basically crushed nuts in their own oil is beyond me, but I guess we also "discovered" a place with millions of people already there too), Harriet Tubman escaped slavery underground, MLK and Malcolm X made segregation go away, Thurgood Marshall was the first black Supreme Court judge,...

matching test...

back to your regularly scheduled European American History

its sad, but I'm laughing because thats exactly whatwent on in my school.

 

[webnerd06]

Originally Posted by infamousod

went to predominantly hispanic school and we did the black history thing big time. the slave trade was always explained in american history class. MLK, Washington Carver, Fredrick Douglas all them dudes were beat into our heads.

this but black history was barely recognized

 

[tony goalie]

If your "black history" started with slavery you did not get a good education on "black history".

 

[i3allistic]

we learn about all type of history ...black history, hispanic history, asian history ...

 

[tfromthe617]

yeah.. but then again my school was mostly black, with mostly black teachers too. in fact i was the only white kid in the the class in 8th grade. we had aclass called efficacy where we learned a lot about black history.. actually, fred hampton jr. came to talk to our class one time since the teacher knew him

 

[ballinamillion1]

I think you should address this question to people that went to schools with a majority white population like schools in the suburbs and private schools. Ialways wondered about this too.

 

[wildcard]

yes every school celebrates black history- and every history class EVER is going to talk about the slave trade. inventions? that seems obscure, no i don'trecall any of that. but come on man you act like teachers are just going to sneak over the entire slave trade like it never happened

 

[jthagreat]

I had two teachers who happened to be black that i believe did a good job teachin me black history. i had my own fascination but that mainly being about thestruggle. that fascination still remains.

 

[the yes guy]

I think I've learned about the transatlantic slave trade as much as anything else in history, possibly even more so than the Holocaust because this pastyear we glazed over that. There was not a single black student in my class sophomore or junior year.

 

[jordanpp30]

I was 1 of 10 white kids in school so yea.

 

[superantigen]

Originally Posted by Tony Goalie

If your "black history" started with slavery you did not get a good education on "black history".

Not necessarily...

In this country, black is synonymous with "African-American". Correspondingly, "black history" is synonymous with "African-Americanhistory", which in my opinion, begins--more or less--with slavery, or the slave trade and onwards.

That said, I am doubtful that most high schools provide their students with what can accurately be described as "black history". As sad as it is, thehistory of this country will always be viewed and dictated, primarily, as the history of whites/Anglo-Saxons in America. And with this being the case, whatyou're invariably left with are whole populations of native born peoples (Native Americans, Blacks, Asians, Hispanics) whose history in this country is:

1. Trivialized relative to whites...and
2. Skewed from viewing American history through the "White-American-lens".

This is one of the reasons why I think it's important for individuals to go to college because in college, you have the opportunity to learn WHAT YOU WANTand NEED TO LEARN, without being influenced by some already set requirement geared toward getting you out the door as quick as possible.

...