One of my students, “Sara,” is studying for her AP Language and Composition exam in May, so I wanted to start having her write practice essays. One of the essays on the test requires students to analyze the rhetorical strategies an author uses, and I assigned an essay about “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” by Martin Luther King, Jr. Sara, who is white and attends school in Illinois, did not understand the letter because she did not know who he was.
Let me repeat: A smart, supposedly well-educated American high school student in 2023 did not know who Martin Luther King, Jr. was. I asked her if she had off for MLK Day, and she said yes, but she didn’t know what the holiday was for. Just to be on the safe side, I verified that she was born in the United States and has never attended school in any other country. I also discovered that Illinois mandates one unit of African American history in both elementary and high school.
Only two units in twelve years of education is paltry, of course, given how much African American history there is. Clearly, it’s wildly insufficient if a student can attend school through eleventh grade without learning about King, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, international human rights icon, and easily one of the most important African Americans to have lived in the twentieth century.
Why do so many white people fear an honest discussion of race? Why are so many Republican leaders opposed to teaching it? An honest look at the historical evidence leaves no doubt that the American Dream was only ever intended for white people. Is it so hard to admit that our ancestors weren’t nice? That they knowingly harmed other human beings for profit? We may wish it weren’t so, but it’s time to acknowledge the truth.
This issue is much bigger than test prep material. In recent decades, white supremacist beliefs have flourished across the United States, and many people fear that they constitute a serious threat to our democracy. White students who don’t learn about our country’s treatment of racial minorities are ill-prepared to resist their ideology and more likely to support their initiatives.
I understand that some white teachers may feel ill-equipped to conduct racially honest conversations in their classrooms, especially at a time when teaching about race has become so fraught. Each time I write one of these blogs, I worry about negative reactions I might provoke. However, I also know that giving in to the censors will prolong our country’s reckoning with the sins of its past and that more people will be disempowered, disenfranchised, and even murdered if we continue to remain silent.
Elizabeth Breau, Ph.D., is a private English tutor and the author of History According to SAT: A Content Guide to SAT Reading and Writing. Her website is historyaccordingtosat.com. She can be reached at elizabeth.breau@gmail.com.
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