Commentary: Dear Parents: With the recent murder of George Floyd, by members of the Minneapolis Police Department, I decided as a father it was time to teach my daughter about racism. My daughter is seven years old. It’s hard as a parent to have a conversation like this with a child so young and innocent, not yet tarnished by the ways of the world, but as I sat her down I thought about the other seven year old children of color in this country that have already been directly affected by acts of racism and the much harder conversations had by their parents. I asked my daughter if she knew what racism meant, and she answered no. I told her it’s when you are treated differently based on the color of your skin. I knew even saying it then, that it was such a trivial answer to the question, but I then wondered what the right answer could be?
As a historian, if put in front of a group of people in a lecture hall, I would have no problem putting together a lecture that highlights the many racial injustices that have occurred throughout or nations history. But why was it so hard for me to do the same for my daughter? I think this is the existential problem with the way we approach teaching racism to our children, either in our homes or in the classroom. We as parents are afraid to tarnish the purity of our children with the horrors that have occurred in our past. But for some, regardless of their parents attempts to preserve this purity, children of color in this country are given front row seats to the cancer that is systemic racism in America.
I have always believed that education is the foundation for change, and in light of current events, that now is the time to have the uncomfortable conversations with our children. But it must be more than that. In no way can the history of systematic racism in America be rolled into one uncomfortable conversation with your children. It is indeed an education, like any subject, that must grow with the pupil’s intellect and nurtured in their minds at ever level. While I firmly believe this is indeed a conversation people should be having with their children at home, but like any education, it should be fostered and built in the classroom. But then again, we run into the same predicament of comfort and a new struggle over consistency.
In most public educational systems, periods of racial strife are seen as isolated incidents or glanced over in general with no overall connection with the bigger theme. Whether this is a ploy to avoid uncomfortable memories of American history to preserve a purity and greatness of a country we are training our children to be the future of, or the fact that as parents we are woefully unaware of and/or uncomfortable with. Regardless, it serves no benefit to either the student or the community in which they will one day be a part of. As it has been echoed throughout my education, if we as a people don’t understand where we came from, how can we understand where we’re at now. As the results of current events stream over social media and news outlets, this philosophy ever importantly still rings true.
As parents, we need to take a stand, to fundamentally change the way American history is taught to our children in school and at home. This requires two steps. First, as parents we must not allow our own miseducation to infringe on the education of our children. We must take better steps at educating ourselves with a more thorough and accurate account of American history. Second, we need to pressure school systems to teach a more comprehensive history curriculum. One that addresses issues of racial strife, women’s rights, and LGBTQ history, in regards of our children receiving a fuller picture of American history. We, as parents, have to break from the comfort zone of whitewashed American history, and step into the uncomfortable reality that is American history. Our children should not have to wait until they are in college to receive this information, granted they will all have that chance.
As both a parent and a historian, I implore all parents, teachers, and government officials to take this opportunity to reevaluate the way we are educating our children in the history of this great country. As a country we have overcome and evolved at so many levels, but there is still work to be done. As I have said, education is the foundation of change, but we need to better arm the youth of this country before we hand over the mantle to them, and we can only do this by giving them the education they need and deserve.