Accurately Teach #BlackHistoryMonth via Sabrina Stevens @realsabijoy
Posted with permission from Sabrina Stevens. If Twitter is blocked and you are not able to view the embedded Tweets I copied Sabrina Stevens words into a Google Doc.
Hey, #teachers. Let’s talk, #EduColor style.
So it’s officially #BlackHistoryMonth & a lot of you are going to be tempted to teach some BS.
— Sabrina Stevens (@realsabijoy) February 1, 2017
Today I want to focus on a particular #BlackHistoryMonth peeve: the inaccurate way many of you teach about American enslavement. #EduColor
— Sabrina Stevens (@realsabijoy) February 1, 2017
Something to understand about enslavement: anti-black racism as we now know it is a *result* of “New World” slavery. Not a cause.
— Sabrina Stevens (@realsabijoy) February 1, 2017
When you teach children that Black people were enslaved *because* of skin color, you are miseducating them in multiple profound ways.
— Sabrina Stevens (@realsabijoy) February 1, 2017
Remember: when European nations started colonizing the Western Hemisphere, they were looking to get rich. First a quicker trade route…
— Sabrina Stevens (@realsabijoy) February 1, 2017
…but instead they hit a giant land mass. Then came fantasies about finding cities of gold, etc. In North America, that didn’t happen.
— Sabrina Stevens (@realsabijoy) February 1, 2017
But there was one thing that could make all their investment worthwhile: fertile land. But they had no clue what to grow here, or how.
— Sabrina Stevens (@realsabijoy) February 1, 2017
Who did? Native folks already living here — and, they’d eventually discover, West Africans from places with a similar climate, etc.
— Sabrina Stevens (@realsabijoy) February 1, 2017
Many things that grow well in West Africa also grow well in the American South. To grow them at scale, need lots of people who know how.
— Sabrina Stevens (@realsabijoy) February 1, 2017
White settlers enslaved West Africans to exploit their knowledge & skill for profit. NOT bc of skin color. *Students need to know that.*
— Sabrina Stevens (@realsabijoy) February 1, 2017
When you teach them Black people were “slaves” bc of skin color, you mislead them into thinking that Blackness makes people “slave-like.”
— Sabrina Stevens (@realsabijoy) February 1, 2017
You also erase who is responsible for enslavement: white slave owners. Enslavement (notice how I don’t say “slavery”?) doesn’t just *happen*
— Sabrina Stevens (@realsabijoy) February 1, 2017
Moreover, enslaved people weren’t just exploited for their labor. They were exploited for their *knowledge*. Leaving that out perpetuates…
— Sabrina Stevens (@realsabijoy) February 1, 2017
…stereotype that Black folks are inherently more physically gifted than mentally. Not so. Tell the whole story.
— Sabrina Stevens (@realsabijoy) February 1, 2017
And speaking of the whole story, *do not* be tempted to minimize the brutality of enslavement by focusing on “nice owners,” etc.
— Sabrina Stevens (@realsabijoy) February 1, 2017
For starters, there is NO “nice” way to own another person. Humans are not tools, not things. All people have dignity & deserve freedom.
— Sabrina Stevens (@realsabijoy) February 1, 2017
Moreover, power imbalances like the one between an enslaved person & their owner almost always breed cruelty. (Psych 101: Zimbardo, anyone?)
— Sabrina Stevens (@realsabijoy) February 1, 2017
Moreover, power imbalances like the one between an enslaved person & their owner almost always breed cruelty. (Psych 101: Zimbardo, anyone?)
— Sabrina Stevens (@realsabijoy) February 1, 2017
Enslavement was not akin to being an unpaid intern. Enslavement involved mind control, physical abuse, rape, torturous experimentation, etc.
— Sabrina Stevens (@realsabijoy) February 1, 2017
If you are doing your job, students should understand the dehumanizing consequences of using people for profit. For victim AND perpetrator.
— Sabrina Stevens (@realsabijoy) February 1, 2017
If they leave your class thinking it’s sad that Black people didn’t get paid, or that Black classmates “look like slaves,” you messed up.
— Sabrina Stevens (@realsabijoy) February 1, 2017
I have to go make breakfast, but before I go, quick reminder that if you’re considering having kids re-enact enslavement with games, etc. pic.twitter.com/eEoKdnrfLk
— Sabrina Stevens (@realsabijoy) February 1, 2017
