I came into the New Year certain that I was leaving behind my urges to clap back at Facebook personalities and to keep the shade-laced posts disguised as “essays” to a minimum. I thought. I did well for a whopping 9 days. I was scrolling one morning and came across a post that I could not resist, not because I am lacking self-control but because misinformation and bigotry where unchecked can be dangerous, and well, who wants to be in the world loud and wrong? The post read “so it’s a requirement for elementary kids in California to take a LGBT history course yet Black History is still, nvm.” No matter how much I believed that the contributions of the LGBT community should indeed be included in our history courses, I knew that America in all of its glory had not yet reached that level of progress.
After a quick search, I found that the only links that mentioned an actual LGBT course were products of Fox News, Info Wars, and websites that looked like high school extra credit assignments . Why neither are good places to collect information to support an argument is an article for another day, but it can be assumed that any person who values higher learning and critical thinking should know how to identify credible sources. I found nothing that suggested that such a course had been established. The truth is that LGBT-inclusive textbooks were approved by California’s State Board of Education after the 2011 Fair Education Act, or Senate Bill 48 [https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/cf/senatebill48faq.asp], added LGBT and persons with disabilities to the list of underrepresented groups to be added to California’s inclusionary Education curriculum. When I made this known to the person who shared the Facebook status, the response was that the concern was not with what was being taught but what was not. In other words, how could there be inclusion of LGBT individuals when we have not yet perfected the Black History curriculum? Here came my confusion. Is it not a concern that in the 21st century, legislation has to be passed in order for individuals who identify with a certain sexual orientation to be acknowledged for work that has helped change the trajectory of life as we know it? Is there an implication being made that the progress of the LGBT community halts that of Black Americans? Further, is there some hierarchy of oppression that outlines which groups are eligible for representation and a timeframe for when such should occur? Have the Civil Rights and Black Power movements in their exclusion of gender issues not taught us that domination is multi-dimensional and that it can be approached from all angles – at once? To reduce the human brain to such a simple place of only being able to focus on one human rights issue at a time is a disservice to what human beings are capable of, and is a take that is often used as a form of homophobia. It is also a take that fails to acknowledge that many Black people are at the intersection of Black and gay. Many more are at the intersections of Black, gay, and disabled. While I agree that there could be some improvement to how Black history is taught, I think that there needs to be some clarity as to what amount of history would be sufficient. I am not sure that the point of K-12 social studies is to teach the life story of every single Black person in history, nor would there be time to do so. More inclusive lessons and textbooks are a start, and they make room for students to go on to study further.
Overall, the question that should be asked is “do LGBT-inclusive textbooks harm the education of the children reading them?” The answer is no. It does not, and it will not. It teaches history that is more inclusive and respectful of identities. It challenges the very false notion that sexual fluidity is some new-aged trend rather than a historical fact often concealed as a means of survival. More importantly, it creates an education that is reflective of the larger society, not just the heterosexual white men who produce the textbooks. It is a step in the right direction, and while it will likely have flaws – as anything that is not controlled by the targeted group– it should not be seen as a loss for other marginalized groups such as Black Americans. Let us continue to require more for our children’s education and to support one another’s strides in the process. XO
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