Let’s pull ourselves up by the bootstraps.  (A conundrum that is impossible) 

Memory lane: After the civil war, blacks had gained ownership of over 15 million acres, which meant that they were also in control of 14% of the farms located in the United States.  So, what happened?  Oh, they were killed for it or swindled out of it.  

 

Let’s ease on down the road.  Because of slavery blacks had learned many skills so guess what? Unions were created to freeze them out of well-paying jobs.  So, they began creating their own communities.  But guess what? Atlanta Race Riot (1906), Greenwood, Tulsa, Oklahoma “Black Wall Street” (May 31 – June 1, 1921), Chicago Race Riots (1919), Rosewood Massacre (1923), Washington, D.C. Race Riots (1919), Knoxville, Tennessee Race Riots (1919), New York City Draft Riot (1863), The East St. Louis Massacre (1917), etc.

 

That was so long ago.  Your right.  Let’s bring it to the 60’s.  The sanctioned beheading of our King, Martin Luther King, April 4, 1968.  The sanctioned killing of Malcolm February 21, 1965.  Now Lebron James and Al Sharpton are our leaders?  Appointed by who? 

 

But anyway, I’m getting to the classroom, but let’s make a few more stops.  Did Reagan and the C.I.A. dump tons of drugs into your neighborhood?  Well, they sure did put it in communities that look like me to pay for off the book wet work.  That affected the brain chemistry of two or three generations. In fact, we are still feeling the effects.  Remember those 80’s.  On the news every day, this is your brain, and this is your brain on drugs.  The war on drugs which was a war on black people.  Black people were doing crack and “wall street” was doing cocaine and heroin.  But the majority of people going to jail were black. Prison became a booming industry.  The three-strike law under Clinton decimated families.  But “black folk” loved him because he went on Arsenio Hall and played the saxophone.  The media was complicit as well.  Last year 130 people died each day from opioids, but the people are portrayed as victims and addicts, as they should be, but quite different from the 80s. 

 

Deliberate mass poisoning of black communities. Flint water crisis.  Matthew McFarland, the foreman at the Flint Water Treatment plant, was found dead at his home on April 16^th, 2016. Sasha Bell A 19-year-old Michigan mother who was one of the first to file lawsuits on behalf of the thousands of children poisoned by water in Flint was found shot to death 3 days later along with her friend. They know we know, but they rather kill a few folks then have the truth come out.  Michigan, Chicago, DC, Baltimore, etc. have poison water in the communities of color.  These children are growing up with brain damage and we want them to sit in straight rows for 6 hours. 

 

America has bailed out many countries around the world.  17 countries in Europe with the Marshall Plan. But we are supposed to pull ourselves up by the bootstraps.   

 

I was raised by my aunt from 7th grade on.  What did she have?  A home library.  Knowledge and information.  What else did she have? A movie collection. Knowledge and information.  To learn some true history about yourself is a powerful thing.  What else did she have? A passport.  She worked for the government. I lived in Caracas for 7^th and 8^th grade.  There were students from 42 different countries that went to my school.  Exposure to other cultures helped to eliminate boundaries and overcome culture patterns. Built lifelong friendships with people who didn’t look like me, and some of the best teachers in the world.  9^th and 10^th grade lived in D.C.  Once again exposure to people from around the world and from around this country.  Some of the best teachers in the United States.

 

So how do we create an Anti-Racist classroom?  Let’s acknowledge the past history of this country. America is like a child that had no mother to chastise her.   Let’s teach these students to have a researcher’s mindset.  Always in search of the truth. That their history started centuries before slavery.  Always to question hypocrisy and double standards.  Michael Vick got 21 months for cruelty to animals but the cops that beat the hell out of Rodney King go free.  Colin Kaepernick was called a SOB for kneeling during the anthem by the president, but the Capital Rioters can beat security guards with the American Flag.  Children will come to recognize these discrepancies and must not be afraid to challenge them.  

Finally, we must embrace technology.  We can strip away some of the ignorance and brig the world to the students if they are not able at this time to see the world. 

 

I’m ranting, but I have had racist teachers.  I have been stopped by state troopers in Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi that I am absolutely sure belong to the KKK.

 

At the end of the day, I just remind myself to be like the turtle.  Hard on the outside.  Soft on the inside and willing to stick my neck out for the right cause.