History Class: 90% White, 10% Black

  For this topic I'm instantly transported back to my k-12 school days. In front of me is a problem that I have been contemplating for quite some time actually. I distinctly remember sitting in my various history classes and listening to lectures about Europe. Critical examinations on monarchial governments, the rise of fascism in Italy and Germany, and how the sun never sets on the Great British Empire. I came to the realization that history is basically "The Man" telling the world his story. The Man obviously being the Anglo-Saxon white male who traces his roots back to the almighty European Continent filled with all of its historic glory. From my understanding the reason that we are taught history is so that we can learn about "our" past and keep the memory of it alive. Unfortunately I fail to see the "our" being equally represented in the history classroom. My ancestors are not the feudalist peasants of the English countryside. I do not have the royal bloodline of the medieval rulers flowing through my veins, and my ancestors most certainly did not travel over here on the mayflower. Sure us poor black kids are allotted a couple of depressing classes dedicated to slavery and civil rights where the teacher speaks in a soft sad voice and the class remains quiet and solemn. However, since people originated in the forests of Africa, Black History did not start with black people being sold and transported on a ship.

  When I entered middle school I was given the option to pick an elective. when I looked at the choices available to me I was shocked and thoroughly offended to say the least. I was being required (forced) to take a U.S. History class for 1 whole credit and as an elective I was given the option to take an African-American History course, physical education, music, or study hall as an unrequired and completely optional choice for which I would receive only a half of a credit. Honestly, I'm not exactly sure how I was supposed to respond or feel about my future schedule when the weight of a class about black history fell short to a class that teaches me about how Caucasian people came from Europe and took claim to an entire continent that was already inhabited by Native Americans; the likes of whom they nearly drove to extinction for a "new world" that had existed way before they had arrived, a country that was built on the backs of an enslaved people with members that had created a constitution to be the symbol of freedom, equality, and justice that just so happened to overlook the ones that needed its protection the most. They wander a lot about why Black students don't show much interest in history, well something tells me that it's because of the fact that there's a large lack of representation from people that look like them.

  In high school I took a total of five different history classes. I distinctly recall that in my tenth grade year I was required to take a European history course. I learned all about Europe not that I needed any further lessons on the inner workings of Europe. The whole time I sat in that class I woundered time and time again why isn't there an African History class or for that matter any other history class on a non white people. To me it seems as if we only really learn about Africa or India or Latin America and a lot of other countries through their relation to either Europe or America in the form of colonization and imperialization. When I try to look back on all the things I've learned in school about black people I can recall the yearly lectures on Harriet Tubman and the underground railroad and even Nat Turner and his spiritually inspired rebellion. Or the significance of Dr. King's "I Have A Dream Speech" and why Rosa parks refusing to give up her seat on the bus in 1955 was important. Don't get me wrong these events and people are extremely important in the history of black people, however I honestly don't believe that I was taught about the injustices of Apartheid on the same level as I was lectured on feudalism. I know for a fact that in no history class from k-12 did I learn about any of the many African tribes but I can write an essay on the different protestant church denominations formed in opposition  to the Catholicism. I was taught nothing of the animist religions traditionally practiced all throughout Africa but I can name every mythological deity in both Latin and Greek. In history we are taught about classical music performed by Bach and Mozart but we learn nothing of the traditional music and instruments created and performed in Africa. It isn't right that we don't learn about the works of Desmond TuTu, and that we are not taught about the Haitian Revolution in history class. But what's most disturbing is that little black kids are learning about one of the worlds most influential peacekeepers in a movie about soccer and associating the legacy of Nelson Mandela to a Hollywood actor instead of the true man.

   In my history books there are tons of pictures and quotes glorifying what are deemed important figures of history such as Christopher Columbus, Queen Victoria, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Woodrow Wilson to name a few. These people are presented as heroes, painted onto a lofty pedestal as untouchables. Is it wrong that I put these figures in the same categories as criminals, opportunists, racists, rapists, malicious, and liars. History should ultimately be about the facts. People should be held accountable for their actions whether good, bad, or ugly. But most importantly I believe that all of history should be taught and required in school. If we don't know or learn about each other we become and stay ignorant of each other. Honestly I don't even believe that history class should be just about the right to be equally represented and equally accounted for. The little black girl and the little white girl should be able to go into their classrooms and be taught about the histories of each other because they both deserve to know their own history and the history of the person right next to them.


-Jasmine M.

Beautiful Black Girl

Yesterday I was sitting and thinking simultaneously. Whenever I try to do these two things together I always get this nagging urge to write. I grabbed a pen and some paper and began to just write. Its something so exciting about creating poetry, you know your hand is your brains instrument and you just let your thoughts flow onto paper. Well enough with my rambling here's the poem everyone.......

Beautiful Black Girl
Beautiful Black Girl, where do you go?
Born into a world that don't want to see you grow.
Suppressing all of your hopes and-
Replacing all of your dreams
Nothing in the world is ever what it seems.
The black ink that is your skin flowed smoothly,
through the pen of the Almighty Father who alone created you in his image.
Beautiful Black Girl with so much potential-
blooming into a marvelous flower.
Powerful are the roots of a soul sister, dug deep into the cool dirt,
holding down a legacy in the making.

Mother Earth from which the grass grows, keeps the sweet song-
of the tiny bluebird in the inner stitching of the wind.
The serene little tune reminds all the Beautiful Black Girls-
that they are never truly alone.
Placed  within a shadow, so that the intensity of an intimidating greatness-
in the possession of you may be forever hidden from your heart.
Break free black child, bound by the same somber chains-
that held you poor ebony mother down.
Oppressed her spirit and left her stranded, stripped of the freedom that once-
she embraced as naturally as the air laced within every breath.
Alone, empty is the heart of the unripe black berry-
taken prematurely from its bush.

Beautiful Black Girl, embrace the face of the dark sea.
Its vast reach far exceeding what can be seen on the mere surface,
Mourn girl! Remember the tragedy that comes with your inherited skin.
Never misplace the sacrifice, lost life.
Seeping through the wounds is the rich dark blood oozing for relief.
Only time can heal the pains that can not be seen.
Tick, Tock, Tick, Tick, Tick-
The hands spin, but the pain still remains because the slain still are one of the same skin.
Beautiful Black Girl, the burden that you bear, far exceeds your rightful share.
Surrounded by silent whispers of who said life is fair.
Beautiful Black Girl, know that the only love you need resides deep inside your heart.
Praying that hopefully it succeeds your hidden scars.
Never fear, our time is near, remember this
For we are Beautiful Black Girl.