[sumayyah]

I don't think it's wrong to teach the "dark side." I keep hearing, from Black people, how they hope they children NEVER learn these things because they have no place in today's society, that it's "past" and should stay "buried." There was teacher in an elementary school up here (Michigan) who, when questioned about teaching her students about Malcolm X, said "I hope they NEVER learn about Malcolm X; Malcolm X was a thug."

I just finished reading Randall Robinson's "Quitting America." In it, he details an essay his daughter wrote for school, and she mentioned (as helping Black people) Fredrick Douglass, Marcus Garvey, and Nat Turner. Her teacher responded that Br. Garvey and Br. Turner didn't help Black people, they just "caused trouble."

We NEED to know these things, We NEED to understand what happened to our people. This can no longer be brushed under the rug, and treated like an afterthought or some long forgotten, irrelevant bastard child. My only question is how young is too young? I've got a 4 year old starting kindergarten in September, and I hate thinking that his first year of "real" school will consist of Douglass, Tubman, Parks, and King, and then just taper off.. or worse, start in on athletes and singers rather than freedom fighters. For once, I'd like to see The Black Panther Party covered, and the slave revolts, and the history of Haiti, just to name a few.