By Sophie Borne
Ever since 1976, every U.S. president has designated the month of February as Black History Month. Black History Month began as a month of celebration for the achievement and recognition of African Americans’ role in U.S history. And that was a progressive idea for 1976. But it’s now 2021, not 1976. The idea of acknowledging black history once a year is no longer enough. After last summer’s racial conflict, we’re ready as a country and as a school to move from black history being just one month out of the year to being incorporated fully into mainstream culture and curriculum.
“The only way to correct the washing of black history is to rethink the way people are educated,” said senior Christopher Gray. “Accurately telling the whole story will require an entire overhaul of the American education system. That, in my opinion, will not happen.”
Why may this not happen? One reason, as explained by senior Gabrielle Bachemin, is the sensitivity of the topic for white people. “Schools don’t want to teach about black history because they don’t want black people to know about their history. Some white people are so ashamed about their past that they’d rather try and erase it.”
The idea of erasing certain aspects of history is not new, especially in the U.S where the current education system offers more of what Ward Churchill calls “White Studies,” which emphasizes the imagined superiority Westerners have on their accomplishments in the world, ignoring all else.
So, what can we do? “The best thing schools can do in teaching Black history is by not only teaching black history for a specific month,” senior Mackenzie Wilson-Ripoll said. “It pushes the narrative of ‘let me give you your flowers, now leave me be’ or even ‘I’m not racist, I have black friends.’ It does not hold value if you only teach students black history one month. There are so many black people who have done stuff for modern life that need to receive their flowers. There are so many modern day black people making changes that also need their flowers.”
Moving forward, black history should be a core focus in our education and not just a one month off-shoot. Some classes already try to do this, with, for instance, literature by women and authors of color represented proportionally with the so-called “classic” white male authors. But for this really to work, a thorough look at each course’s curriculum would need to be made adding in other parts of the story. As a nation and as a school, we’re ready to finally take that step together into a brighter future where everyone is on equal footing.
