Locals Address Race with Younger Generations
Making Space for New Perspectives
Conversations about race are taking place across the country as nearly 3 in 4 Americans consider racial and ethnic discrimination to be a big problem in the U.S, according to a Monmouth University Poll in June 2020. Adults are voicing their opinions, marching in protests and reflecting on their own experiences, but what is being done to engage the nation’s youth in the conversation?
Acknowledging a Lack of Education
Darlene Lewis (right), with student
Prichard native and Mobile resident Darlene Lewis, who has been a school counselor in mostly inner-city schools for six years, feels that in the U.S. there seems to be little motivation to learn about people and communities that are different from us. “Until something terrible happens like the George Floyd incident, and then it’s forced upon us. But it shouldn’t be forced upon us, it should automatically be taught, and when it’s not, we need to educate ourselves,” she says.
Corey Martin agrees that a lack of knowledge plays a consequential role in perspectives on race, saying, “Education is the crux of the issue. People don’t understand the Black Codes or the second part to the 13th amendment that says if you’re a criminal you’re a slave again. Black, white, Asian, Mexican, American Indian—there are so many histories of so many people and so many histories have been left out. People are culturally engaged in ignorance—both black and white—because we weren’t taught the true history of the United States, and further the true history of the world.”
Martin comes from a long line of educators and founded a mentorship program for young boys in Fairhope, where he will be sworn in as the first African American city councilman next month. He is confident that when the education system broadens what is taught in schools, people will recognize that we are all just humans. “They will see that the only thing that separates us now is the content of our character and our heart, our values, our morals, what we stand by and not really ever the color of our skin.”
Diving Deeper into History
Corey Martin with students
At Bayside Academy, in Daphne, history lessons are not limited to what can be found in a textbook. In 2016, a group of social studies teachers were pondering creative ways to engage their students in the classroom. With a shared interest in Southern history and the civil rights movement, they teamed up with the art department to develop Understanding the Southern Mystique—an interdisciplinary course that considers what it means to be Southern by exploring the South’s history, culture and identity. Students analyze music, art, films and literature that depict life in the South; they explore historical and environmental views and they consider the psychological impact of trauma and the resiliency of the region.
“Our intention is to get to the truth, so we learn as much as we can,” says social studies teacher Douglas Robertson. “When we started this class, I think most people assumed it would be a celebration of the South—how the South is great but we get a bad rap. And we do celebrate a lot of things, but we really take an honest look at different aspects because we have a history that has been problematic. While celebrating the good aspects, you have to acknowledge the negative—you can’t understand the blues without understanding sharecropping.”
Understanding the Southern Mystique class at Bayside Academy
During a unit on the civil rights movement, Southern Mystique students studied the former Alabama Governor George Wallace, who is known as a segregationist and a symbol of hate. They were presented with the images that he is most-known for (i.e. standing at the entrance of the University of Alabama to block the path of black students), but they also learned that he wasn’t a racial extremist early in his political career and he moderated his views on race later in life. An assassination attempt left him paralyzed, and in the late 1970s he became a born-again Christian, publicly apologizing to African Americans as he tried to make up for the sins of his past.
At the completion of their historical investigation, Southern Mystique students weren’t asked if Wallace was a villain or a hero, they were asked if they would forgive him. “It’s hard for students to answer because in this day and age we don’t have a path of reconciliation,” Robertson says. “On Twitter, people bring up the mistakes or what a politician said 15 years ago. We don’t have a way to forgive. There has to be a way for people to grow and if we want to advance the country and work together to find progress and equality, it takes reconciliation. In class we want to present the problems so students can form their own opinions and find a resolution.”
Having Uncomfortable Conversations
Understanding the Southern Mystique students at Bayside Academy
Whether it’s a lack of knowledge or the color of our skin, we are often our own biggest roadblocks when it comes to raising racially sensitive children. “The fact that we’re white dudes trying to share diverse perspectives—including that of people of color—there’s an inherent limit to what we can offer because of the background we come from. But we strive to incorporate black authors and films by black directors, we find ways to bring in perspectives when we can’t offer it ourselves,” Robertson says.
As a foster parent and an advocate for the foster care community, Blair Martin has had kids of all different races joining her family of five. However, she doesn’t want anyone to think that because she has fostered African American and biracial children, she is an expert on race relations. “It’s important to be able to admit what I don’t know and the biases we have, yet I do want to be a part of the conversation. I want to make a positive impact on my little corner of the world and that starts within the walls of my own home.”
Martin admits she wants to change the station when her kids are in the car and stories like George Floyd’s murder come on the radio, yet she fights the temptation to do so. “Growing up, no one ever really talked to me about race. Living in Fairhope, I feel that it’s my job to break the rhetoric of being colorblind. It breaks my heart to explain current events to them and it can be uncomfortable, but I know that my friends of color are having even more difficult conversations with their children. We don’t get to ignore race simply because it may not impact us in a negative way,” she says.
Class discussions in Understanding the Southern Mystique often push kids beyond their comfort zones and Robertson observed that students were feeling nervous during a recent conversation about confederate statues. “They were afraid that they were being racist if they asked certain questions or were thinking along certain lines. We live in a polarized society and we have to teach them that school is a place where you can make mistakes and that the classroom is a safe place to ask questions and explore different ideas.”
Lewis says one of the toughest conversations she’s had at school was when a student approached her about a white classmate saying the N-word in their predominantly African American school. “Hearing a sixth grader verbalize how it hurts him to hear that word because of what his ancestors experienced with the same word—that was really hard,” she says.
She facilitated a peer relationship conversation so that the student could express to his classmate why he was bothered by the racial slur. “I think it’s important for students of all backgrounds to hear how hurtful different terms and slurs can be and what it means when they hear them,” Lewis says.
Taking Action at Home
Blair Martin (right) and family
When it comes to social-emotional learning, Lewis emphasizes the importance of fostering an environment where children can problem solve instead of holding in their emotions. While anger management and conflict resolution are valuable concepts, students shouldn’t be encouraged to suppress their experiences. “We’re often told to tell students that their anger is not okay and that they need to calm down, but it’s important that they can express themselves in a healthy way.”
Instead of telling a child that they shouldn’t act the way they’re acting, talk through why they are feeling the way they do. Lewis says, “We live in a racially divided society and a lot of times when it comes to racial issues, those experiences are suppressed. It’s so important to be able to verbalize it, get it out and tell how you feel, because it causes even more trauma when you don’t—for white children as well.”
Lewis encourages parents to take the time to educate themselves. “Learn about different cultures within our communities and our society, how different cultures influence what we see today, both the good and the bad,” she says. “Taking the time to find out fosters an environment of acceptance and learning and empathy for other people and cultures.”
It’s also important for children to interact with people of different races, cultures and socioeconomic groups. “Kids can’t be kept in a bubble; they need to see that people are people and race is a group identity. When they understand that individual identity is what matters most, they learn that it’s not useful to judge people as a group,” says Robertson.
Martin creates space for conversations that might not otherwise happen by choosing Netflix shows with African American lead actors or reading books that have characters that look different from her family. She says, “Hopefully we are raising children that are compassionate and that understand that people come from many different backgrounds and experiences and each one of us has an important story. All of our stories are woven together as humans on this planet and we should care about each one.”
