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DeSenseLess Is At It Again [1]
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Date: 2023-01-25
Uh, I know I should know better...
So I get emails. We all get emails. This was just another activist email, you know the type, “write to your [senator/ congressman/woman/ Governor, etc.]...” What is below is a letter I added to from one of these emails. I’m including the full text in case anyone else wants to join in the fray. I boxed off my bit (the top).
I am my mother's full-time caregiver, I just turned 51, I am a part-time student online at Penn State World Campus, I am of Eastern European descent, (that means I'm white - but white doesn't really mean anything with regard to ethnicity).
Recently I completed two semesters of Anthropology courses, and one of the many things I learned is that genetically, we are all pretty much the same, that ethnicity and race are cultural constructs. Yet, as a society it seems the white men in charge are still so threatened by anyone who doesn't look like them.
This country was born out of bloodshed, attempted ethnic cleansing of all indigenous people, and it was built on the back of slaves. If we try to hide from the truth of the systemic racism that exists in our society, we are doomed to fail. In this day and age, I just have to ask all the white men in power (both non-hispanic in origin and hispanic in origin) what are you all so afraid of?
Teaching children that racism is immoral is imperative. If the white folks are worried that it will make their children feel bad about being white, well then I have to ask, why do white people think that the children can't identify with the white people who have fought against (the abolitionists) and continue to fight against racism? Why can't the children learn to identify with those in history that acted with moral justice, fairness and righteousness? Why should white children be made to identify with the slave owners, the lynch mobs, the segregationists? How can teaching children what is moral and right be a bad thing?
The rejection of the College Board-created advanced placement level high school African American Studies course by the Florida Department of Education under your leadership is a disgrace.
The course has been developed over the span of a decade of rigorous research and debate and is already being rolled out in a pilot program involving more than 60 high schools across the country. The curriculum teaches the history of civil rights, African American music, literature, arts, political movements and more, all designed to teach a fact based historical look at the African American experience in the United States. The class itself would be an elective, meaning that no student would be required to take the class to graduate.
Rejecting and singling out this class is wrong, deeply hypocritical, and casts aside a fundamental aspect of America’s roots. It also perpetuates the exact kind of systemic racism that classes like this have exposed to students so they can learn and understand how these hardships have been overcome in the generations before them and what might inform the fight against injustice for generations yet to come.
Florida cannot be allowed to erase the history of an entire group of people who have made significant contributions to our nation, especially while already offering AP courses covering French, German, Italian, Latin, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese language and culture.
You should be ashamed of the rejection letter for the African American Studies AP course which included the statement that the course “significantly lacks educational value.”
Stop playing politics with our children. Black history IS American history. It’s your job to teach it.
Sincerely,
[END]
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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/1/25/2149290/-DeSenseLess-Is-At-It-Again
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