We, as a society, must do better for the black community. As an ally for the Black Lives Matter movement, I aim to highlight the vast inequalities black people face through an interdisciplinary lens. I am by no means an expert, but I am learning to be a better advocate for the black community. I implore you to do the same: educate yourself on what it means to be anti-racist, donate to the many organizations supporting the movement, and join me in this fight for equality. -Sarah
Black liberation can only be achieved if we learn about the generations of systemic racism upon which this country was founded on.
June 30, 2020, 11:29 am EDT
Written by Sarah Chu
I grew up in a predominately black suburb in Massachusetts. I graduated at the top of my class in high school, had the privilege to study at three of the most prestigious institutions in the world, and recently earned my Bachelor of Arts in economics and math. But still, I’m uneducated.
Despite going to a high school with a large black population, I learned almost nothing about black history. My American history courses often treated the experiences of black Americans as a small contribution of a larger narrative in America’s origin story. Taught using a theme of progress, our course curriculum glossed over “milestones” of black history, starting with the abolishment of slavery in 1865, the Jim Crow laws and the Civil Rights Movement.
It was only recently did I learn about Colfax Massacre of 1873, the deadliest incidence of racial injustice during the Reconstruction era, and the Tulsa massacre of 1921, where white rioters destroyed a beacon of black wealth and prosperity, and countless other horrific events in black history. Like so many other critical acts of racial injustice, these tragic untold stories – and the recurrent problem of racial injustice – have shown that our narrative should not be a tale of how far we've come, but rather, how far we have to go.
America's whitewashed narrative perpetuates anti-black ideology, which serves as an oppressive structure that marginalizes black people. We are exposed to a fraction of black struggle, yet fail to see the many examples of black excellence. We choose to ignore the manifestation of persistent discrimination that black people – and their ancestors – have faced since our country's foundation. We become racially “color-blind.” We fall complacent to the atrocities of police brutality that disproportionately affect black people. We rob generations from understanding the colonialist ideology that still exploit black Americans to this day. It is for this reason why anti-racist education as a reform is not only crucial, but necessary.
Anti-racist education equips students, parents, and teachers with the tools they need to combat racism. Instead of glorifying our colonial past and erasing black history, it eliminates the practice of labelling people based on the color of their skin or racial identity. It gives us the vocabulary to condemn racist behavior, and helps us deal with the cultural and racial differences from a critical perspective. Anti-racist education provides us with the skills to move beyond a world in which the color of a person’s skin defines their opportunities.
The anti-racist framework also extends beyond the classroom. Learning black history through readings, documentaries, or even conversations with black Americans who feel comfortable sharing their stories, foster a sense of solidarity, compassion, and understanding for the black community.
Through anti-racist work, we must actively take a stance against racism, and reorient ourselves in a way that enables us to constantly question the world around us. Why do we learn about the triumphs of Christopher Columbus, but not his initiation of the African slave trade? Why are there only four black CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, when black people make up 13.4 percent of this country? Why are black Americans dying of COVID-19 at three times the rate of white people? The constant evaluation of racist structures that exist within our country is bound to feel uncomfortable, but unlearning our own unconscious biases is not meant to be easy. Embracing the uncomfortable will only press toward more meaningful dialogue.
Education is a journey, and the process of unlearning deeply held assumptions that perpetuate anti-blackness is only the beginning. It is imperative that American education is inclusive of Black experiences. Black liberation will only come when we begin to have uncomfortable conversations about race, class, and inequality, so that we can move toward policy reform. For systemic change, we need to address the flaws in our education system by implementing an anti-racist pedagogy that analyzes the racial injustices that people of color have faced in our country.
From the words of Tara Westover in her best-selling memoir, Educated,
“Everything I had worked for, all my years of study, had been to purchase for myself this one privilege: to see and experience more truths than those given to me, and to use those truths to construct my own mind.”
Let it be that Americans are given the privilege of an anti-racist education to begin fighting for equality and justice for all.