Shaun KingVerified account

Not to mention the amount of history that was probably destroyed so future generations couldn't go back and learn it.

I started learning about Ibn Battuta and Mansa Musa, then how African/Arabic scholars preserved Classical knowledge and advanced science and math, and then how Europeans colonized & exploited Africa. Most people here in the South have never heard these names nor this history.

The problem begins with the premise, that we have to separate "Black history" from all other history. Then it gets relegated to a small subsection. We're taught about the settlers in Jamestown all the way until the lead up to the Civil War without a mention of Black Americans.

This has me really pondering the ramifications of my introduction to black history being slavery. My first impression of black people (grew up in all white community) was them being bought, sold, and beaten. In kinder, I was taught to dehumanize them. Wow.

No doubt where the history begins affects how those learning about it view people of color. If they went back further perhaps then they'd be viewed as human beings sold into slavery rather than slaves that came from Africa. Just a thought. It's wrong by the way, if you ask me.

Great discussion. Not all curricula organized this way—many teachers I work with in New York collaborate to reorient history instruction and disrupt conventional, thought-inhibiting narratives. Students K-12 learn to make historical meaning from range of regions and eras. Kuzma!

Also the omission of things like the Black Wall Street Massacre in Tulsa or destruction of the black village to construct Central Park.

Also, not all Africans were kings and queens. Nothing works like that. We can have pride in ourselves and heritage without having to think that back in Africa, we ALL wore the royal crown

I believe it to be an unintended outcome of white-centric viewpoints as to the first time Africans became introduced to much of European culture. It's the slight difference between selfish inconsideration and malice of intent.

Indeed. The “black” history needs to start where it began: human history. The Great Rift Valley.