My heart hurts as I’m literally watching the slippery slope of Historical Education become even more slick as community members and advocacy groups are objecting to the inclusion of books like “Ruby Bridges Goes to School” written by Ruby Bridges, who became the first Black child to integrate a segregated New Orleans school when she was six.
Apparently, some parents feel that this book (based on Ruby’s actual real life experience as a child) mentioning a “large crowd of angry white people who didn’t want Black children in a white school” was too harsh and didn’t offer “redemption” at the end. There has also been disapproval expressed with the teaching of words like “injustice” and “inequality” in grammar lessons.
I’m still trippin’ over the “No redemption at the end” statement. That’s right, there was no redemption! Because actual US Marshalls had to literally escort this child to & from the school everyday. That’s what actually happened. It was real…it was traumatic for those involved…and it should be taught.
If you’re against kids learning about Ruby Bridges, and having her children’s book as part of our kids education, I believe that you’re literally opposing the exposure of truth that would actually help our nation become a more inclusive place by allowing young people to grow up in a world that isn’t skewed towards seeing everything through a historically Caucasian lens.
And before someone posts anything dumb on my page…I want to simply ask where was all of this fire & anger when I was growing up as an African American boy in primarily white spaces and being asked if could “play the piano less black?” or being taught to sing about “Taking My Stand in Dixieland” for school concerts. (You know the song that begins with the lyrics, “I wish I was in the land of cotton?”) Or given reading for Literature class that included numerous references to black people being ni#$ers? Or when my younger sister was asked in the 4th grade to write about what it would’ve been like for her to live in the BIG WHITE HOUSE on the plantation back in the 1800s?!?!?
Seems like there wasn’t a problem with any of that, or with any of the currently taught historical curriculum that includes a number of lies, fallacies, mistruths & blatant omissions that anybody with Google & 2 minutes can point out. But, now that we’re here pushing against the wall of what has been, you have folks speaking out against learning about Ruby Bridges???
We’re not talking about CRT. We’re not talking about grouping all white people into a group of oppressors. We’re talking about Ruby Bridges, who is actually still alive to tell of what happened to her. These are the things that make me just shake my head.
Do you realize that Ruby (at 6 years old) spent her entire first year in a classroom of one, with no white child willing, or allowed, to join her? Do you understand the horrors her family had to face simply because of her parents insistence that Ruby have equal access to the same education that was being offered to white children her age? Why wouldn’t we want ALL of our children being exposed to such bravery, such courage, such persistence & just downright stubbornness that said, “I’m not going to allow anyone to take this away from me, no matter what I have to go through.”
So, here’s my thing, if you are fighting against CRT being taught in schools…I need you to make sure that you’re not also throwing out the baby with the bath water, because the truthful portions of our past need to be kept. And as hard as you’re fighting to keep your children from feeling like they are being unfairly viewed as “oppressors”, that’s just as hard as I need you to fight for our black & brown children to have the full perspective of our country’s history recognized and taught to both them and their peers.
Using your power, your authority, your privilege & the ultimately the law to attempt to systematically eliminate even having exposure to racial literacy, or the words “inequality” & “injustice” is the very definition of the term White Supremacy that so many claim to not be able to recognize even when it is standing right in front of them.
I don’t know about you, but I’m here to stand against it and sometimes that fight simply begins with pointing out the problem. My prayer is that those who read this post are willing and ready to get into the ring along with me because the bell has already been rung and I’m just curious to know which corner you’ll be in? As for me and my house, we’re with Ruby.
Here is a link to an article about where this is happening: https://theweek.com/…/anti-critical-race-theory-parents…
