After watching I Am Not Your Negro, my brain is reeling with questions and possible answers. Definitely more of the former and less of latter.
How did I not know that as Ruby Bridges walked into that white school building, she was being spat on and taunted by whites? That as she crossed the line between the black community and the white community, there were moms shouting at her, "Go back to your own school!" John F. Kennedy was asked to accompany Ruby Bridges on that significant day... and he declined, saying it was unnecessary that his presence be there. I wonder what he was thinking? Was the white/black divide veiled from him as well? Did he not understand the depth of the situation? Did he, like me, believe that Birmingham, AL "is located on Mars" and isn't a true representation of America's history and reality? Or did he just are about "safety and profits... not about segregation" (Samuel Jackson)?
And why is it, that 60 years later, my family is ignorant of the true history of the segregation and racial injustice in our country? Last year, right as George Floyd was coming across our televisions, a family member said to a black neighbor of ours, "I'm colorblind. And I'm so glad my kids are colorblind, too." Our neighbor was kind. He smiled and did not have much to say in response to their ignorant remark. Today, we think back to that comment, and it burns in our memories. How did we not see? How did we not know??
Unfortunately, according to Malcolm, "our country insists on being very narrow minded." As my husband and I think now about how we are raising our two daughters, both in elementary school at this time, we are "moral monsters" if we do not teach them about the racial injustice that America has been built on. Sadly, I know my daughters will not hear about this in their school on a regular basis. They will not hear it from their grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins or friends. I feel now that I can almost completely relate to Ben Rector when he sings the song The Men That Drive Me Places. Listen to the words. Those who are privileged don't really know how they even became privileged. It's a gigantic secret to whites that our country is divided into colors. White people don't want to believe it... we don't WANT to see it... but the numbers are there and they don't lie. They are as real as the numbers that are able to predict your lifespan by looking at the amount of money in your bank account (In Sickness and In Wealth).
Why does our country insist on being so irresponsible? We are selling our children a version of "some idealism which you assure me exists in America which I have never seen" (Malcolm X). It is our duty and our children's right to know that American history is NOT the clean, perfect story that I heard about in school 30 years ago that continues to feed our children today. Additionally, "we are criminals if we don't face our history" and "nothing can be changed until it is faced" (Samuel Jackson).
Can you imagine what it would be like, though? Can you imagine if you lived in a well-funded town where Great Schools rated your district highly, where the money flowed in easily, and where the ratio of black to white was 50/50? We know now, after watching How Structural Racism Works, "white flight" exists and after 20-30% of the population is black, whites will flee. But what if they didn't? What if whites stuck around because it was better for creativity and culture, better for the children, better for our health, better to be surrounded by all intellects of all races in a community that was NOT struggling? I'm realizing now that this does not exist. I always thought that it did "somewhere." I'm coming to the realization now that this is, like the video explained, an idealistic dream that is not based on reality. Martin Luther King's dream was bigger than what I originally understood his dream to be. I thought his dream was that blacks and whites could be in school together. I see this in my classroom every day. We celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. and take the day off from school as a holiday. He did it! I thought his dream had come true.
I didn't realize before this year how far we are from fulfilling the realization of Martin's dream.
Hi Meghann,
ReplyDeleteThank you for being so honest and for your vulnerability in your blog post for this week. It sounds like you are putting into practice what Baldwin suggested at the end of the video which is to ask why? Why do we contribute knowingly, and unknowingly in these systems that dehumanize others? How did we get here? Why are we still here? I learned that Dr. King’s fight was a human rights fight and not just about racial justice. When we “other” people we justify treating them as less than but if we were all to see each other for the vulnerable, strong, unique humans that we are and if we saw each other as brothers, sisters, family I think things might be different. One of my mantras is that everyone has their own story, and everyone is fighting different battles. We need to have compassion for each other. Anyways, thank you for your thought provoking questions. I didn’t learn about slavery in school until 6th grade. I had a white, male, teacher who had us watch the series Roots in class and journal after each episode. There was no processing or discussion component to this classwork and we were being graded for each journal entry. Thinking back, watching that infuriated me, made me feel guilty, sad, confused, and at times hopeless. I remember sitting in class wanting to cry but not being able to for fear of being made fun of, but it affected me deeply. I didn’t know what to do with all that at such a young age. I didn’t talk about slavery in school again until I think junior year in high school, and it was glossed over. It wasn’t until I was adult that I learned that my maternal grandmother is a descendant of slaves in Colombia. There is so much we don’t know, that our children don’t know but we need to start asking more questions and learn the history of the systems we interact in so that we can begin to figure out how to dismantle the oppression the systems perpetuate.
Your post is extremely though provoking and asks some very reflective questions, and I truly appreciate the reflection on this idea that many believe because white children and black children can attend school together, that Dr. King's dream has been fully realized, and with that the end of racism-a mythical hope using the end of the Civil Rights Movement as the closing of the chapter on a system that will take so much more to undo.
ReplyDeleteMeghann, I really appreciate your blog post. The way you were able to articulate the white privilege blindness and not wanting to think that racism and segregation are something that is so real in 2021 is so real. I have such a hard time understanding why it has to be this way. Why can't we uplift each other and still be successful. This is something we hear alot about when talking about women and how we treat each other, lifting one another up rather than tearing them down but this should be the norm for all people and while I rationally know that it has to do with money and power I cannot wrap my mind around the why, why would we not want to see everyone successful. AND where do I fit in to the solution.
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