Here is the clincher: As we deconstruct racism, the pushback of
those with power (what is sometimes referred to a perception of reverse
racism/sexism, etc), and expand the lesson out from there, we can turn this
into a study of dominant group and how history education is subverted by
accident. Stick with me here:
First of all, with young children, recitation and
memorization are a standard and acceptable part of education. Nuance is not something that young children
are capable of at an Elementary level.
To understand that Jackie Robinson was the first black baseball player
to play professionally in the national leagues is a response that my seven year
old can completely memorize. But, does
it help her understand Why they made it a movie? Is it clear to her the context of the role
Jackie Robinson played? Absolutely
not.
If I raise my children in the dominant (white)
culture of the United States with no background of our racial history, without
a context for what we are today, then so seeds of our own destruction. If my children are taught to honor Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr., without understand the world he fought so hard to change,
then we are left with something simple:
his skin color. To understand
this fully, if I am seven, have no history background, and see a movie preview,
and the answer is that this was a black man who played baseball, it shapes
me. If Obama is celebrated as the first
black president, and I don’t understand the Civil Rights Movement because I am
only a child, then I left with the surface.
We celebrate his election because he is black.
To build on that, as I grow with this limited
understanding, without a proper understanding of the history to fully flesh out
our understanding, we are left with a power struggle. I am a young white child. Here is a man celebrated for being
black. What? Don’t worry, when you get older, we’ll fill
in the rest of the context. By the time
you are in your junior year, we’ll explain that Jackie Robinson was treated
poorly because of his skin color. But
that is ten years down the road.
Now, if we expand this same concept beyond race, and
we look at any group that we hold out as a symbol of victimization who rose
above, we run the risk of creating a pushback in education. We must be careful that we don’t create a sense
of victimhood or separateness for groups that are not dominant. When we teach Holocaust Education, we must
not take the victims out of the context.
When we teach, at as early an age as we can, we must be sure to be clear
not to separate ourselves from the victims.
We are both human first. We must give
the full context, not just the simple answer.
Genocide happens when a dominant group is able to convince their
children that another group is a victim and is a threat to their hegemony. But, it is never that clear. Instead, we put it in ways that are more
invasive. “They make poor choices for
themselves, and don’t take personal responsibility.” “They are getting handouts/taking
opportunities from us/degrading our culture.”
“If we allow them to continue, they will bring this
country/culture/party/etc to its knees.
We must stop them.”
When we teach historical topics to our youth, we
must be sure to keep them in the context of the event. We must not stop at the easy answer. We must give a complete response that leads
to more difficult questions. We may not
have the answers, and it may not be a comfortable question, but when we are
asked “Who is Jackie Robinson”, or “Who is Anne Frank”, we can’t stop with he
was a black baseball player, or she was Jew fleeing Hitler. We must do justice to those who gave their
lives, willingly or unwillingly, to change the world.
