Our stories, our history matter.
Our country fights over what is the true history of this country and what children should be taught about this history in schools.There are movements to ban books that talk about race, racism, history of injustice, and structural racism. The books are deemed as divisive or may harm children because the books will make them feel uncomfortable. The organizers of these movements say it’s about protecting children from topics that their kids are too young to learn about or might make them feel bad. I want to know whose children are being protected.
As a mother of Black children, I didn’t have the luxury of banning books or images that might harm my kids or make them feel bad about themselves. My kids read the books that were available in school that rarely showed anyone that looked like them or were written by historians or authors of color. They heard news stories or saw images about the numerous Black men, women and children arrested or killed. They saw themselves as one of a few kids of color in their classes. They had questions that they wanted answered about their race, identity and injustice.
There are those that only want us to learn and remember history the way they think it should be told. But what is the truth? Is it true that our country enslaved Black people? Isn’t it true that Indigenous Peoples were displaced from their homes?
The idea of banning books because someone decided that it was too much for children to hear or read about; it would make them feel bad about themselves is interesting. For example in Texas, there are lawmakers requesting schools to identify books that could cause, “guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress because of their race or sex, or convey that a student, by virtue of their race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.” These bans are about protecting children from guilt. But there are other feelings that reading can provoke such as empathy and compassion. What’s wrong with feeling those emotions? I guess they forgot about these emotions. I wonder if for every book that’s taken out, it will be replaced by a book that makes kids feel good about themselves.
If we’re to educate our children about their history, then it can’t be from one just one point of view. Our country’s history is complex. Our founding fathers wrote in our constitution about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness but there were also the details about how freed whitemen were the only people to enjoy these rights. Those details are not inconsequential. The roots of our country’s foundation is racism. Our country was intended for one group of people to prosper over others. It passed immigration laws that excluded those not deemed worthy. We need to ask ourselves why the movements to ban or erase the true history of our country exist. Why there’s a need to rewrite history with mythology?
Our children are learning about race, diversity, identity and racism whether they read about it in a book in school or not. Children internalize these ideas based on direct and indirect experiences, through conversations had and not had and through seeing what their parents and family members do and how they treat others. Instead of banning books, let's use them as the tools they are meant for, education, edification, starting conversation and opening the imagination.
Our history is what happened; good, bad and indifferent. Let’s provide opportunities to learn, connect with each other and do better. But without the whole truth, how many more stories will be silenced, erased or rewritten? Who is silenced and erased? Our stories, our history matter.