Debate over critical race theory shows why we need Black History Month | Jenice Armstrong

Growing up in the 1970s, we had a black-and-white TV with aluminum foil on the antenna, which means I’m old enough to remember when Black History Month was still Negro History Week. Back then, the historic contributions of African Americans were something you rarely heard much about, even during that week.

Because of that, I appreciate how far Black History Month has come as an institution. At the same time, I look forward to the day when we don’t need it anymore. I hope that one day, this nation finally recognizes and embraces the fact that Black history is American history, and treats it with the same reverence we have for George Washington and our white, slave-owning Founding Fathers. Until that happens, this is what we’ve got.

This year, though, the commemoration hits differently. Unfortunately, this Black History Month got off to an especially scary start with racially motivated bomb threats at 17 historically Black colleges and universities, including my alma mater, Howard University.

» READ MORE: It’s time to bring more humanity to Black History Month

That’s on top of all the Fox News-fueled hysteria over critical race theory, also known as CRT. Simply put, CRT is a way of looking at America through a racial prism. Proponents of CRT believe that most U.S. institutions were built with racism embedded in them, and that this helps lead to different outcomes for people based on their race.

But because right-wingers intent on invigorating their base have co-opted CRT, turning it into a wedge issue tied to everything related to Black history, legislators in more than 30 states have introduced bills that attempt to control how race and America’s racial history get discussed in classrooms.

This nonsense is pervasive and has made its way into local school board meetings around the country, including in our region. Lawmakers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey have introduced legislation attempting to limit how race is taught. Introduced last summer by House Republicans in Pennsylvania, HB 1532 would not only constrict the teaching of so-called CRT-related topics but also would limit the ability of colleges and schools to enter into contracts with outside speakers on certain subjects. A proposed bill in New Jersey, introduced in November by two Republican state senators, would pretty much do the same thing.

Meanwhile, fueled by partisan bickering over this issue, attempts to ban books such as Toni Morrison’s classic The Bluest Eye are running amok again. This kind of thing started in the United States with the Puritans and has continued to present day, proving there’s always someone who wants to limit what students can read.

Against this troubling backdrop, it would be a big mistake for African American parents to sit back and leave the teaching of Black history to institutions subject to the vagaries of politicians. Now more than ever, it’s important that we lift up the stories of Black people and make sure our children know the truth about how we’ve shaped this country. There are too many people trying to silence our voices. Our history is once again under attack. Speaking our truth is vital so that our children and future generations know that they matter, and that our people are just as important as everyone else in the history of this country and the world.

“The Jews didn’t wait for the Gentiles to teach Jewish children about Judaism,” pointed out Walter Palmer, who has taught the history of American racism at the University of Pennsylvania for decades. “You cannot expect people who are not a part of your group to be as invested in your group or your group’s history as you are.”

Sharif El-Mekki, who heads the Center for Black Educator Development, said parents should begin by recognizing that after-school hours are prime time for supplemental education. People can take advantage of online resources such as Reconstruction.US, which has culturally based educational programs for African American children. They also can take their children to Black-owned bookstores such as Harriett’s Bookshop in Fishtown and Uncle Bobbie’s Coffee & Books in Germantown, where they can be exposed to a wealth of information about the Black experience.

“We have to stop waiting for systems that have already said, ‘We don’t like you’ and ‘We don’t want to educate you.’ It’s a long history of that and this anti-CRT hysteria is not a new thing,” El-Mekki said. “The education of Black children has always been policed and surveilled in a very particular curriculum in a very particular way and in pedagogical frameworks. And we as families and as communities have to own the out-of-school time.”

Black families did that with freedom schools during the 1960s and on plantations, where the offspring of sharecroppers gathered to learn. They knew better than to try to leave it up to mainstream institutions to teach their children. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. famously said: “I favor integration on buses and in all areas of public accommodation and travel. I am for equality. However, I think integration in our public schools is different. In that setting, you are dealing with one of the most important assets of an individual — the mind. White people view black people as inferior. A large percentage of them have a very low opinion of our race. People with such a low view of the Black race cannot be given free rein and put in charge of the intellectual care and development of our boys and girls.’’

In other words, parents have got to take charge themselves.