An Open Letter To Primary School Teachers,
You have a hard job. I know a couple of current and former elementary school educators, and the stories you guys have! It takes a lot of energy, plus it’s a pretty big responsibility, trying to shape young minds even if the information you are paid to give them runs directly counter to whatever they’re being taught at home.
I’m not a teacher myself, so I hope you don’t think I’m out of line if I offer you a few words of advice. See, I’ve learned some things in this past week. And although I am not sure I am equipped to tell you what you should do with your class, I do have a few ideas about what you shouldn’t.
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• Bob Johnson recent experiences with racism come from white people not understanding how insanely, unimaginably rich he is. [WP]
• Despite Mychal Bell’s conviction getting overthrown, protesters will still rally Thursday for the Jena 5. []
• I can’t really be mad. The cash is really all 50 Cent has left. []
• Oh, the conundrum of American history — celebrating the beginning of our country means celebrating something else a lot more sinister. [DP]
• The NAACP continues to rally for a North Carolina black man they say is wrongly accused of raping and murdering a young woman. [WRAL]
was 31. He was a slave under the authority of a particularly brutal overseer in Southampton, Va. He was a preacher. Some historians have painted him as crazy, but many people believe he was simply mad as hell and didn’t want to take it anymore.
On the morning of August 21, 1831, Nat Turner and six other slaves entered the house of his master and killed him and his entire family. Picking up about 50 to 60 slave supporters as they went, the group from house to house, killing about 55 whites before being stopped by the militia.
Turner was eventually sent to prison, where he famously dictated his “.” On Nov. 11 of the same year, he was hanged and skinned.
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Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, a document that supposedly gave slaves their freedom, on January 1, 1863. Since these were pre-Internet, pre-television, pre-black-people-being-allowed-to-read times, interested parties (read: slaves) in Texas didn’t hear about this until Union soldiers strolled into Galveston on June 19, 1865, bearing really good news.
June 19, eventually shortened to Juneteenth, became an annual emancipation celebration in Texas, and slowly trickled into other states until it became a national (although unofficial, in most places) holiday. Today, it’s celebrated across the country with marches, festivals, and barbecues. Happy Juneteenth!
- Isaiah Washington’s “mad as hell, and he’s not going to take it anymore!” Why? Because ABC officially fired him. [E!]
- There are “questions” as to whether a slave passageway (used so that guests did not have to see them entering and exiting the main house) found under George Washington’s presidential home in Philadelphia should be included in a new exhibit. []
- The French Africa is soon to be Chinese Africa. I guess just plain Africa is too much to ask for. [IHT]
- James G. Clark, the former Alabama sheriff responsible for Selma’s infamous Bloody Sunday in 1965, died Monday at 84. Unlike many Southern whites alive at that time, he retained his racist beliefs until he died. [UPI]
- Some members of the CBC are looking to gingerly extricate themselves from Congressman Jefferson’s corner. [Politico]
John Amos should have no problem recruiting a group of young, black men to participate in a “terribly exciting” documentary project he’s working on. He wants to shackle some Bloods and Crips inside the slave ship Amistad and sail the Middle Passage. And film it!
Actually, it may be a tougher sell than I originally thought.
“Amistad America is launching its vessel this month (June 21) to sail from Halifax, Nova Scotia to England in conjunction with Great Britain’s 200-year commemoration of the abolition of slavery,” Amos tells the columnists. “Once it reaches England, Captain Pinkney — the first African-American to solo circumnavigate the globe in a sailboat — will take command and sail the boat to slave ports on the West Coast of Africa, Barbados and various other ports.
“Can you imagine the impact it would have on, say, four young men from conflicting gangs, like two Bloods and two Crips, who have been involved in a negative lifestyle, to take them on the Amistad to let them realize the history they’re involved with and the historical opportunity that’s been given to them? Let them get exposed to what their ancestors went through so they can have a better appreciation and realize the obligation they have to try and live a good life and fulfill their potential as human beings. Amistad America is totally receptive to it, and I’ve already spoken to a couple of other organizations. It’s a terribly exciting project.”
I don’t care how many crimes a guy has committed, I don’t think I wish the Middle Passage on anyone. But if it gets of the ground, Amos can promote it as Scared Straight, 17th century-style.
[EUR]
Like Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama is deeply, profoundly, immeasurably sorry for the role it played in American slavery. Georgia’s still not sure, but it should jump on the bandwagon, lest influential voters get the idea that they aren’t sorry.
Obviously, apologizing for slavery is the cool thing to do. And I don’t know if it’s because it is currently trendy or because these proclamations are coming from politicians who may preside over people still struggling from slavery’s after-effects but did not have any direct involvement in the institution itself, but all of these apologies annoy me. Pandering is rarely sincere. Neither is succumbing to peer pressure. Instead of a making a declaration, maybe these state governments should put more resources into righting slavery’s wrongs, something no one has managed to completely accomplish since it was abolished.
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If attending a hip hop summit motivated the NYPD to follow Alicia Keys, then Danny Glover better check his phone for taps. The very political actor is accepting $18 million dollars from Venezuela, led by the Bush-hating Hugo Chavez, for a movie about Toussaint Louverture and the Haitian revolution.
Toussaint Louverture is a towering figure in the region’s history. A freed slave of African descent, he led thousands of slaves in successful campaigns against British, Spanish and French troops before being betrayed, captured and exiled. He died in 1803, just before his followers succeeded in establishing the island’s independence. William Wordsworth wrote a sonnet about him.
Glover said he wanted to educate the US about the story. “It’s been essentially wiped out of our historic memory, it’s been wiped clean.”
The actor is chairman of the TransAfrica Forum, an advocacy group for African Americans and other members of Africa’s diaspora, and a vocal critic of the Bush administration. Along with the singer Harry Belafonte, Glover is the best known celebrity supporter of Mr Chávez, whom he considers “remarkable”. He is a regular visitor to Venezuela.
Chavez hopes the movie will drive home a negative message about imperialism and Western oppression. That’s all well and good, Chavez, but is there nothing more practical the country of Venezuela could use $18 million for?
Anyway, I’m kind of surprised that there haven’t been more movies about Louverture and the slave uprising in Haiti, considering its historical importance. But beyond being informative and entertaining, I’m not sure what this story will do to affect public opinion. If our slave history isn’t enough to drive those messages home, why would Haiti’s?
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- Ever wonder why black people love Chinese food? It seems pretty obvious to me. [J-ville]
- Apologizing for slavery is the new black. [BaltSun]
- Coolio’s aging “gangta image” was enough to impress one Scottish fan, which isn’t saying much. [Scotsman]
- Nelly is in talks to host South Africa’s version of Pimp My Ride, a full time job that makes me wonder about his career prospects here in the states. Not so good, I would imagine. [EUR]
- Wal-mart’s getting sued, again. For discrimination, again. [PG]
