I reflect back to some of what I learned in high school.  I remember sitting in Mr. Watter’s class while he introduced us to terms like dogmatic, which at the time I thought it was a cross between dog and automatic.  He also went into some detail about some of our social struggles in our history.  Subsequently, he mentioned Senator Joseph McCarthy and his unrelenting search for Communism, even where it didn’t exist.  Why is this unusual?  He taught English, not history, but he introduced me to relevant topics about our history.

I sat in my American History class while we discussed a wealth of different elements of history.  The class ran through the entire year, not just a semester.  Mr. Barnes, whom we affectionally called ‘Coach’, taught that class.  Naturally, we talked about the Civil War and slavery, but we simply couldn’t omit it.  It is an inextricable and undeniable part of our history.  We discussed World War II, but the Japanese internment camps only got about five minutes.  Even upon this terse mention, it was filled with rationalizations about how afraid we were.  We consequently barely mention about how those Japanese, most of them United States citizens, were unjustly impacted.

We talked about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad.  I don’t remember Rosa Parks and her resisting to give up her seat in the bus.  Consequently, we never discussed the Chinese Exclusion Act or the Tulsa race massacre.

That was high school American history in the mid 1980’s.

Let’s teach a more complete version of history

Parts of our history are rather dark, but it is still our history.  However, there’s considerable tension among some parents about teaching these elements of our history.  To deny or erase facts resembles a dystopian society like Orwell’s 1984.  “We were always at war with Eurasia.”

The United States built the Transcontinental Railroad in the 1860’s.  We accomplished this with the heavy use of Chinese laborers; this was hard and often fatal work.  Once these laborers finished the railroad, we didn’t want them anymore.  Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act (yes, we literally called it that) in 1882.  This law was in effect for over sixty years.

Does that history paint us in a poor light?  Absolutely!  Does that history accurately portray our country as racist and xenophobic?  Absolutely!

We cannot dispute or contest any of the above facts.  Do we really believe that if we continue to ignore it, we can magically amend the past like a science fiction movie?

Many parents will push back and claim that this is divisive.  In my youth, I considered learning history to be inane and boring.  I found it pointless to memorize what already occurred.  The most compelling reason to teach history is simple:

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

“You are indoctrinating our kids into Critical Race Theory”

There is little debate that we, as a country, have a racist history.  You only need to look at what we have done to Indigenous, Black, Japanese, and Chinese people to conclude this.  Consequently, including our racist history as part of curriculum is simply a matter of completeness.  To omit it is to teach the alphabet and omit the letter ‘Q’.

Critical Race Theory (CRT) has become a very charged topic of late.  First, it makes the assertion that our country behaved in a way to keep the white people in power.  Second, they designed it that way and did it with intent.  I agree that we certainly have a racist history.  However, I don’t know if I can conclude that we were that clever.

Unfortunately, Critical Race Theory has become synonymous with teaching a more complete, inclusive history that portrays us accurately… warts and all.  I can understand how the former can draw some concern among some parents.  However, the latter is just well, simply teaching history.  Teaching history simply speaks to what actually happened; CRT speaks to intent and predisposition.  To use a crime analogy, the first speaks to a death; the latter makes the distinction between an accident and first-degree murder.

Critical Race Theory is a college level discussion on how we intentionally behaved in ways to keep white people in power.  To mention the Chinese Exclusion Act does not, in and of itself, make the assertion that it was done intentionally to keep white people in power.

If you don’t want your children to learn about third order differential equations in high school, are you going to have a violent objection to their learning algebra?  That’s effectively what we’re talking about.

“You are teaching that ‘all white people are bad and racist.'”

First, allow me to say this to diffuse the term.  All people, independent of their race, do racist things to some degree.  We can split hairs about whether racially insensitive behavior makes you a racist.  For example, let’s say that a white man walks through your neighborhood, and you don’t think anything of it.  Minutes later, a black man dressed the same way and doing the same thing looks ‘suspicious’, and you alert your neighbors.  Is this racist behavior?  Yes.  Does it necessarily make you a bad person?  No.

Second, teaching about our racist history, even if done by white people, doesn’t generically imply that all white people are (or were) like this.  For instance, China did some horrific things in Tiananmen Square in 1989.  Do I feel culpability about what happened?  No, because I didn’t do them.  In other words, I can separate what I did and what other people of my race did around the globe (or decades ago).  It should certainly inspire everyone to be more cognizant about not mirroring that racist history.

Third, do we really believe that a distant, decades old association with people of the same race is going to cause your children distress?  Are we talking about the same people who fly the Confederate Flag?  The same people who defend the public display of treasonous Robert E. Lee as ‘historical’?  These are likely the two most prominent symbols of hate and racism in American history.  If that isn’t enough to deter you from attaching a Confederate Flag to your vehicle, do you really believe that mentioning the Japanese internment camps during World War II is going to cause psychic damage?  I doubt it.

Why we should learn about the Tulsa race massacre

In Tulsa, Oklahoma in June 1921 there was an incident that is often referred to the Tulsa race massacre.  We often omit to mention it.  In fact, many black children who grew up in Tulsa are unaware of the history.  By the numbers:

• Some estimate that the casualties were as high as 300, most of them black.
• Property damage is estimated to be $1.5 million in real estate and $750,000 in personal property (equivalent to a total of $33 million in 2020).
• An estimated 10,000 people were rendered homeless by the damage.

What was the spark that lit this fire?  Dick Rowland, a 19-year-old black shoe shiner was accused of sexually assaulting Sarah Page, a 17-year-old white elevator operator.  This idea was so appalling in 1921 that there were grumblings of residents lynching him, and they showed up in large numbers.  Subsequently, everything else that happened after this was an escalation on each side.

We’ll never know what really happened between the two; I won’t minimize sexual assault.  However, we can collectively agree that Dick Rowland deserved his day in court, not to be merely handed over to an angry mob.  While an idea may be unpalatable to us, let’s all collectively ask ourselves…  What crosses the threshold where we are willing to forgo the entire legal system and take up arms with the intent to take someone’s life?

Is a black male teen, already in custody, sexually assaulting a white female teen rise to that level of angst?  In 2021 or 1921?

Can we look at the tragic events in Tulsa a century ago and condemn (not celebrate nor defend) when someone decides that they’ll become judge, jury, and executioner?

Are we at peace with this today, even when citizens believed that Ahmaud Arbery was committing a crime?