(ThySistas.com) Life moves at 100mph and there is very little time to sit down and give in-depth history lessons to our children. This is how we are made to feel between work, home, other areas of our child’s education and wellness, and we should still consider time to decompress from life at some point. As early as possible we must add discussing the black experience more so a part of our child’s wellness than education. In some cases, it might need to set right under the spirituality/moral compass of the child. I say this because when we get to blackness, and history, we are (in part) dealing with the identity of the child. we are dealing with how he will see himself and who he is in relation to the world around him. You can’t trust the world around him to get the history lesson right. We must fortify our children at home. This is not to say scare your baby at an early age with slavery stories. However, we can define leadership within community. We can also explain what unity and equality is about. Though we hate it, we currently can’t stop white American from whitewashing a leader like Dr. King so we must explain who he is, and why it’s important ourselves.
My son is in kindergarten; he came home telling me he learned about “Dr. Martin”. It took me several inquiries and some context clues to
realize the child was talking about Dr King. Before correcting the name, I allowed him to continue telling me what he learned. He explained black kids had to play with black kids, white kids had to play with white kids, and they could not play together. Then be began to talk about unity and playing together.
He showed me the school reader that talked about unity, equality, and being respectful. I remember thinking…if only this was the world we lived in. I’m away that for a 6yr old this wasn’t a bad representation. However, I noticed as parents discussed the holiday this explanation was running through every grade level. Dr. King is generic to the masses. They don’t understand he was radical, a thinker, he spoke up, he cared about his people, and equality. He was hated, and murdered.
I need my children to know standing up for what you believe in can be dangerous, but not having any dignity is worse. I need them to acknowledge the fight in Dr King, and the principle. School could have talked more about principle and could have used his commemoration to discuss taking a stance for what’s right. However, in a school with a majority of white students and faculty that might be uncomfortable because this discussion means acknowledging black people have been, and are, harmed by white people in this country. I never want my children to be delusional about words like unity and equality. It was spoken on as if these are things that have been accomplished in this country, and we know better. I will own my children education about blackness, and black leadership for their sake…and mine.
Staff Writer; Christian Starr
May connect with this sister over at Facebook; https://www.facebook.com/christian.pierre.9809 and also Twitter; http://twitter.com/MrzZeta.