Letter to the Editor: Understand the past, empower the future
TO THE EDITOR:
This February, my students joined their peers across the country to celebrate Black History Month. In my classroom, we do this in a number of ways. After our daily warm up activity, individual students presented on famous Afro-Latinos and then we came together to explore their contributions and impact. Every year, I’m surprised to see my students’ surprise when they learn about a the many accomplishments and contributions to society of blacks around the world – not because those stories are in short supply, but because success stories of people of color too often go untold.
As a Teach For America alumna now teaching for my eleventh year in Baltimore, I’ve seen first-hand how intimately familiar my students are with the low expectations society has mapped out for them. They refer to the white, wealthier suburbs of the city as if they’re some sort of promised lands. They hear about schools, houses and opportunities better than their own. They read the #blacklivesmatter tweets, but question how true they really are.
In the face of these realities, we have no time to waste. This school year marked the first in which the majority of public school students are minorities. We have a responsibility to work to ensure that each and every one of them is moving through a system that affirms their identities, shows them they’re valued, and allows them access to the opportunities they have been denied for far too long.
While the “whites only” signs of the 60s have come down, the reality of separate and unequal endures. Alongside glaring gaps in educational, employment and economic opportunity, people of color in this nation face a variety of subtler, but no less damaging, assumptions. A successful black lawyer hears whispers of affirmative action. A young black boy on a corner is seen as “lurking,” while his white peers “hang out.” A black college student is asked to give “the black perspective” to a seminar full of white students who are never asked to speak on behalf of their entire race.
We have a long way to go as a country before we truly achieve justice for all. To fix the systemic oppression that has created the gross inequality of the present will take the hard, dedicated work of countless leaders and change-makers — many who have experienced it first-hand, others who bear witness to it from farther away. We must work toward these long-term changes as well as the immediate, urgent opportunities to change the way our students view themselves and their futures.
As teachers, we can play a central role in this. Every day, we can remind our kids that their thoughts, ideas, identities and opinions are important. We can share our own stories so that when our kids look to the front of the room, they see a little bit of themselves reflected back. We can remind them that they matter, that they always have and that they always will.
Samantha Davis is a 2003 alumna of CMU and Teach For America-Baltimore. She teaches Spanish at Mergenthaler High School.
SAMANTHA DAVIS
CMU alumna
Maryland
