Imagine being six years old going to school every day and having to be escorted by security guards as crowds of people shout derogatory slurs at you, and having only one teacher willing to teach you. This was the reality of Ruby Bridges, who was the first African American student to attend an all-white school (Michals). Although our society today is not as segregated as it once was during the 20th century, a drastic change still must be made in terms of the misrepresentation of Black history and the lack of Black Studies in our public schools. Currently, much of our nation’s history is being left out of school curricula. As a result, students, faculty members, and communities are deprived of being able to fully understand how the hardships and efforts of the black community influenced the world we live in today.

In the United States, students are usually taught through a Eurocentric lens. If we want to further expand our knowledge of our country’s history, we must begin to teach subjects through an Afrocentric lens to address years of misinformation. In my education experience, I was not offered a Black Studies course or even have had an African American teacher before my freshman year of college. In his editorial “Why is my Curriculum White?” Michael A. Peters notes there has been an increasing awareness of our whitewashed curricula, and critics are countering “the narrow-mindedness” of courses and institutions in our education system (Peters 641). But even though more effort is being put into shifting the focus of our education system, this is a fundamental issue that has lasted for decades and is going to need more than just critics questioning why things are the way they are.

Included in Peters’ editorial were details from a proposal video created by a group of UCL students in which they pointed out “the lack of awareness that the curricula is white comprised of ‘white ideas’ by ‘white authors’ . . .  is a result of colonialism that has normalized whiteness and made blackness invisible” (Peters 641). From elementary school through high school, I remember being taught that Christopher Columbus was a hero and manifest destiny was a great thing, but this kind of information was not the truth for everyone, but it was the truth for European colonizers so that is the point of view children are taught.

Even if we are learning about significant events in our history, the way in which we learn about them are flawed and shaped to favor Eurocentric values. For example, we learned that the time period of 1890-1920s was known as the progressive era, which included improving the country from economic and moral standpoints and the famous Roaring Twenties. But this time period, stretching to the 1940s, was “The Nadir” for African Americans in which they were facing lynchings, sharecropping, the Jim Crow laws, and much more (Cohen). They struggled through this time period, and soon began the Civil Rights Movement. But in my history class we did not focus on much other than the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, and improvements of our country, totally ignoring the importance of this epoch in Black American history.

Without learning about African American history, literature, art, music, and culture, students are unable to develop a full understanding of our how our nation was formed. We often see how uneducated people act and make decisions when it comes to politics; many just listen and conform to one news outlet or figure, and most never pick up a book or scholarly source and are stuck with the same views and values for their whole lives. This needs to be stopped and it can be if we are taught about the full history of our country. In American textbooks, we are taught very little about African American culture and learn that they were simply victims of white oppression. These are real people who had lives and interests of their own, yet they are silenced when history and literature are taught from a Eurocentric perspective. In the past “black student demand on college campuses led to the creation of academic and community-based programs that were a reflection of the history and culture of African descent” but there still needs to be the same massive push and support for more inclusive k-12 school curricula today (Reid-Merritt 920).

Some might argue that schools do not have enough room in the curricula to teach Black Studies courses, but the parts of history we are already taught about Black history, are through a Eurocentric perspective, which can change, and it should. Schools should be required to have their teachers learn how to teach about Black history and go through a form of training, since there is nothing along these lines established already. Administrators should begin by purchasing new textbooks that have an inclusive lens to history.

Black Studies should continue to expand, develop, and influence schools and communities so that they are enabled to teach children about Black history. Students should understand what struggles African Americans have gone through, and also learn how black culture has influenced the United States. As Peters stated, “it is important to note that there is no dismissal of what white is, but to pay closer attention to how ‘modern philosophical concepts of personhood, human rights, justice, and modernity are deeply shaped by race” (Peters 641). Doing so would create a more peaceful, united future for schools, communities, and the world as a whole. It is extremely important for parents and educators to stay unified and speak out about these issues because silence changes nothing. We have come so far as a country already when it comes to discrimination, racism, and exclusiveness, but there is still so much work to do and there is no point to settle where we are now, so the people of this country must keep fighting.

Works Cited

Cohen, Amy, et al. “More than a Month: The Importance of Teaching Black History Year-Round.” Hidden City Philadelphia, 16 Feb. 2021, hiddencityphila.org/2021/02/more-than-a-month-the-importance-of-teaching-black-history-year-round/.

Michals, Debra. “Ruby Bridges.” National Women’s History Museum, www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/ruby-bridges.

Peters, Michael A. “Why Is My Curriculum White?” Educational Philosophy & Theory, vol. 47,  no. 7, July 2015, pp. 641-46. EBSCOhost, doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2015.1037227. 

Reid-Merritt, Patricia. “National Council for Black Studies.” Encyclopedia of African American History, edited by Leslie M. Alexander and Walter C. Rucker, vol. 3, ABC-CLIO, 2010, pp. 920-921. Gale eBooks, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX2442300573/GVRL?u=newpaltz&sid=bookmark-GVRL&xid=c257f883. Accessed 9 Feb. 2022.