I love Daily Kos, especially my very safe haven, Black Kos.
When I write somewhat autobiographical experiences, I know I am in a safe place.
I was reading one of Denise Oliver-Velez's diaries when I stumbled into her experiences and realized I too dealt with fragile human beings that weren't coping well with celebrating Black History Month.
I had a few White teachers that taught Black History Month with real enthusiasm; and then, there were the racists.
I remember the teachers who showed more enthusiasm for the Crocodile Hunter than the opportunity to talk about Hannibal Barca, Norbert Rillieux, Garrett Morgan, Benjamin Banneker, or Jarina Lee.
There was one teacher that comes to mind.
I remember having to do rough drafts for book reports.
I also remember that any books dealing with Marcus Garvey, Haitian Revolution, Black Panthers, Stokely Carmichael, H Rap Brown, and Malcolm X made White teachers extremely uncomfortable enough to ban those books.
I also remember a teacher that couldn't understand why his sadistic glee on certain books or his racist derision was in extreme poor taste, especially in Black History Month.
I couldn't stomach this man's performative behavior. I hated having his class near the end of the school day.
I remember him telling a young man to not do a book report on Malcolm X because Malcolm X was a "divisive punk". The young man challenged his thinking, asking him why he said such a thing. Within ten minutes, the teacher kicked out his challenger out of the classroom and sent him to the principal's office to call his mother. Unfortunately, the principal didn't "see anything racist" coming out of this teacher's mouth.
This teacher gave the students a directive; find "decent Black people to write a book report".
This story leads me to this question; why are we policing Black History Month? Why are we "sanitizing" Black History Month? Why are we allowing this type of revisionism?
Let's look into why Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas would want to ban the 1619 project from the school curriculum.
Could it be that chattel slavery, or the very brutal essence of it, repudiates the sanitized version of slavery he was taught in school it makes him cringe?
Could the very notion of slave uprisings frighten the White conservative evangelical patriarchs so much that erasure occurs?
Let's look into what happened in the Wisconsin State GOP legislature wanted "Whites who helped make contributions with Blacks" during Black History Month. What is insulting about this incident is the overwhelming need for the white savior trope to be included in Black History Month.
I get being fearful; I despise the tactics being used to center Whiteness.
How hard is it for some people to celebrate the contributions of groundbreaking African Americans on Black History Month?
For the sake of others, could we please not have a negative attitude about Black History Month?