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Black history 'Underground Railroad' forms across US after DeSantis, others ban books

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/09/30/black-history-bans-spark-action-beyond-classroom/70981951007/

Educators, lawmakers, activists and faith leaders have launched efforts to teach Black history after a crackdown on more inclusive lesson plans.

Black history 'Underground Railroad' forms across US after DeSantis, others ban books

Educators, lawmakers, activists and faith leaders have launched efforts to teach Black history after a crackdown on more inclusive lesson plans.

51 comments

MuhammadJesusGaySex

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As a white person that grew up and still lives in the south, around bigotry of all flavors. Learning the truth about our past is sooooo important. The history of the human race is not usually a particularly pretty history.

But, just like we should want a better life for our kids than we had. We should also want our kids to grow up and become better adults than we were. The only way that will ever happen is if we are honest about the good, and the bad.

CosmicTurtle

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As a child of Asian immigrants, I learned about the horrors of Japanese interment camps way into my adult life.

It took me into my mid 30s to realize just how muted US History classes were.

stopthatgirl7

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Most folks had no idea about the Tulsa race massacre until the first episode of Watchmen on HBO, and there was a surge of people googling to see if it had actually happened after it aired. I even read an article about how some people in Tulsa didn’t even know about it until then.

CosmicTurtle

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Same. I didn't know what Juneteenth was until my company started observing it a few years ago.

And bare in mind that I am a kid of the 80s. I can't imagine the curriculum that kids have today.

thepianistfroggollum

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I didn't know what it was because that's a silly name for celebrating the end of slavery.

FlyingSquid

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Weird how we never get taught about any of the bad things white people do unless they do it to other white people, isn't it?

Dr_Fetus_Jackson

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Unfortunately, propagating ignorance is useful as a tool to keep change from ever occurring.

I'm a white dude that lived in the South for 42 of my 51 years. I was fortunate that my parents were flower children that didn't fit in with the hate scene of the time, and they taught me to respect everyone.

Their biggest hurdle was the limit of their knowledge. Like me, they weren't taught the history of atrocities that we're perpetrated against our citizens. The advantage that I had as a parent, over what my parents had, was the good fortune to live in an age of enlightenment through information.

I did my best to make sure that I passed on that part of my parents legacy to my, now adult, children while also making sure they understood what the actual history looked like in our country. I'm hopeful they'll levy their advantages to continue to help break the cycle.

BombOmOm

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Slavery in the US is widely taught in the US public school system. That fact alone completely devastates your idea the US does not 'teach about any of the bad things white people do unless they do it to other white people'. It is also pretty common to teach about the Japanese internment camps in WWII, albeit less so.

MuhammadJesusGaySex

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But the quality of that education depends on where you live. For instance I grew up in Birmingham, Al. We were taught slavery happened, and some places it was bad, and some places it was ok. We were taught about the civil war, and how the south was just fighting for states rights. But that was about it. Our history books were a decade old.

We didn’t learn about Japanese internment camps at all. If you want to really learn about the problem a non standardized book situation causes in America. Look up the states that use PragerU books. Then look up PragerU.

dragonflyteaparty

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That's basically exactly what I learned. The civil war was all about states rights, but they refused to say what those rights were. They also "taught" that after the civil rights movement, everything was perfect and there was no racism anymore.

Hindufury

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It is taught and Civil Rights is taught, but we didn't really learn about ongoing injustices against the black community (redlining and imminent domain, racial biases in the war on drugs, sund9wn towns, etc.) so US history classes painted a picture of it all being largely over with.

AA5B

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For us, they didn’t cover “modern” history at all. For example, neither Korean norVietnam wars were covered

Very_Bad_Janet

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My husband, who grew up in the south, was taught about The War of Northern Aggression (that is what his teacher called the Civil War).

I am having our kids read The Autobiography of Malcolm X and A People's History of the United States.

ETA: My kids' Elementary and Middle schools taught the book Stamped.

ETA2: Are students in Florida going to know what the Underground Railroad even was?

FlyingSquid

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I didn't learn a thing about those internment camps when I was in high school. Shameful.

enki

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Grew up in Tennessee and I learned about them, but I was fortunate enough to go to one of the top public schools in the country that was pretty diverse. Fairly certain there's very few public schools of that caliber left in the southern US.

thepianistfroggollum

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Don't look into the building of the US railroads, then. It's brutal.

As an aside, there were actually German internment camps in the US too. I don't know where all of them were, but I know there was one in East Texas.

FlyingSquid

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My daughter's school just had 'Hawaiian Day' as part of 'spirit week' where every day was wear something stupid. My daughter didn't want to participate anyway, but I took it as an opportunity to teach her about how we committed genocide against the native Hawaiians. She asked why it wasn't taught in school. I didn't have a good answer besides "Republicans don't want you to know about it."

MuhammadJesusGaySex

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That’s a good approach. So many things are left out and passed over. Unfortunately it’s up to us as parents to fill in the gaps. Here’s my own personal brush with infamy.

I live and grew up in Birmingham, Al. In school we had a page or 2 about the civil rights movement. We learned about Bull Connor, and the water cannons, and the dogs. We learned about Fred Shuttlesworth and Rosa Parks. That was about it.

I was in my 30’s when I learned that my uncle was the last man to arrest Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. before he was assassinated. My family didn’t talk about it. My school didn’t talk about it, and it made me realize just how much of our lesson on that subject had been glossed over.

Since my uncle lived longer than King. My uncle got to say in interviews much later that “he knew he was in the presence of greatness” and “I didn’t want to arrest him but I had to”. He may have fooled someone with that nonsense. But, I know that generation of my family used the n-word daily till they died.

A history that’s as truthful as possible is super important. It doesn’t matter who it embarrasses, or upsets, because it’s already happened. We can’t change it, but we can try not to do it again.

afraid_of_zombies

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Unfortunately it’s up to us as parents to fill in the gaps.

That's why my kids know the truth about religion, especially Christianity.

MuhammadJesusGaySex

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Heh Yeah same here. I also try to warn them about people who say things like “X is coming for your jobs, kids, way of life, everything you hold dear, but I will protect you.”

AA5B

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I do t remember much coverage of Hawaii at all. Apparently came into existence with a naval base ready for wwii

xTechDeath

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Very insightful Mr. MuhammadJesusGaySex

xc2215x

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Good to see this. Black history must be taught.

BackOnMyBS

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American history must be taught, and Black history is American history.

dragonflyteaparty

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Well, then why are they taking out the context of Rosa Parks sitting on the bus? Isn't that still American history? Some people feel the need to classify Black history because history concerning black people is white washed and ignored.

Your comment comes off like someone saying "all lives matter".

FlyingSquid

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Oh good, I wasn't depressed enough yet today.

stephfinitely

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In the good words of Dr. Henry Jones Sr. - "Goose-stepping morons like yourself should try reading books instead of burning them!"

TowardsTheFuture

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Ah yes, reading railroad staring LeVar Burton.

Very_Bad_Janet

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Levar Burton is the honorary chair of the 2023 Banned Books Week.

thepianistfroggollum

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I honestly don't understand how banning books is constitutional. Like, I definitely don't want it to go before the SC any time soon, but books should be protected speech.

BombOmOm

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The books are free to purchase, own, and sell by the general public. The books are not banned.

What they are talking about is selecting what reading material is to be taught and available at schools. Such has been a thing since schools have been a thing. Schools do not have infinite time to teach nor infinite space to house books, selection criteria necessarily exists.

HorseWithNoName

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selection criteria necessarily exists.

Sure. But it shouldn't be based on racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, and forcing christianity on people. Hence the issue.

freeindv

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Which is why it's important to put a stop to the anti "whiteness" material that has rapidly become common in school curriculum

stopthatgirl7

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…oh boy.

dragonflyteaparty

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They are absolutely being banned. Universal bans and not allowing things to be published or sold at all is not the sole definition of banning things. That's not the only way to define banning. It can be small, local, regional, or unilateral. There are many different places or ways a ban can take effect. The books are being banned from schools and libraries in some cases.

If I ban something from my house, it's still a ban. If it's banned from the neighborhood, that's a ban. If it's banned from only my kid's school, that's a ban.

I don't get why some people think a national ban against the publish and sale of books is the only definition of a ban.

BombOmOm

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Considering the books can be legally sold and purchased by the public, it is hardly a book ban.

Ghostalmedia

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They are being banned in schools.

BombOmOm

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Deciding what reading material is available in schools has been a thing ever since the invention of schools. I bet there is material even you would support not offering in schools.

stratoscaster

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Whatever makes you feel better about your racism man

Enkers

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What a lacklustre straw man. Look, I can completely ignore context too!

The Disney movie "Ruby Bridges" (banned) and the Anarchist Cookbook (also banned) are way totally completely equally deserving of a ban in schools.

Here's the synopsis of the banned movie, btw:

This film presents the real-life tale of young Ruby Bridges (Chaz Monet), one of the first African-American children to attend an integrated school in the Deep South. At only age 6, Ruby is selected to attend an all-white school in New Orleans, causing an uproar in the racially divided region. Among the people who try to help Ruby adjust to the tense situation are teacher Barbara Henry (Penelope Ann Miller) and Dr. Robert Coles (Kevin Pollak), a child psychiatrist.

Both banned, therefore exactly the same. Yup.

FlyingSquid

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That's on Disney+. I'll have to give it a watch. Thanks!

stillwater

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No, they are literally being banned. This is not a matter of choosing what to have in inventory and it's basically lying to suggest that's what banning books is.

Ensign_Crab

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You're splitting hairs about whether it's a ban in order to justify removing items from the curriculum at the insistence of racists.

You're making excuses for people who burn books in the hopes that their movement will persist long enough that they can burn people.

Blamemeta

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You gotta realize, the leftist demand for hate outstripes the supply, so they have to redefine words like ban

Enkers

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The fuck is outstripes? Is that like a backyard potty with a bad paintjob? A nudist inmate?

Blamemeta

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Means to go further than, or be higher than. The demand for hate is a lot higher than the supply.

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/outstrip

Bartsbigbugbag

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No it doesn’t. You mean outstrips? That’s not what you said, and why the comment before was making fun of you.

FlyingSquid

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I don't know anyone on the left who demands hate. Can you please give an example?

msage

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Expecting decency towards 'others' is like an attack to them.

dragonflyteaparty

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Since when does ban have a strict definition to mean not allowing the publish and/or sale of books nationwide? If I ban something from my house, am I required to use a different word?

osarusan

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It's precisely how dishonest people try to steer the conversation. Never let them get away with that, or every conversation will be unproductive.

GreenMario

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Aww is poor baby mad we hate their stupid widdle obsolete traditions and beliefs? Is baby gonna cry to Trump? Gonna go do a widdle Nazi march temper tantrum? Aww he so cute when he mad! Here have a little binky and go take a nap.

Ensign_Crab

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Stop treating him with so much unearned respect.