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Todd R. McAdam/Cortland Standard SUNY Cortland alumnus Aaron Bowen, left, and his sister, junior Jailah Bowen, pose for a video, pose for a digital video Thursday at an event to mark Black History Month. Black history, educators say, should be incorporated into everyday history lessons -- part of American history. And other Black studies should be pursued, too, including economics, theology, humanities and political science. Photo: Cortland Standard.

Mar 01, 2022

By VALERIE PUMA

Cortland Standard

The students in party dresses and semi-formal attire traded hugs, mugged for a video camera and prepared for a party. The group was Know Your Roots, and the event was for Black History Month but the celebration was for the future, not the past.

It starts here, said junior Jailah Bowen of Virginia, standing with her brother, Aaron Bowen, an alumnus who returned to SUNY Cortland for the event. It makes us stronger as a community. Theres knowledge behind this.

Nevermind Black History Month, established in 1976 to honor the contributions and sacrifices of Black people in making America, educators say. Nevermind little tidbits and educational units on the Underground Railroad, of Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver and the assorted Black people who made U.S. history.

Black history should be taught year-round, they say. And not just as an isolated, segregated, topic, but integrated into the whole of American history. Beyond that, Professor Seth Asumah said, the studies should include political science, humanities, theology, economics even biology.

We have to think of all those aspects, Asumah said just before he joined the celebration.

In colleges in the greater Cortland area, educators are being trained to do just that.

Inclusive education

Asumah was born in Ghana and came to the United States to pursue his college education in the late 1970s. After earning two bachelor's degrees, a masters degree in public administration and a doctorate in government, Asumah became a professor at SUNY Cortland in 1989.

Now, as a distinguished teaching professor and chairman of the Africana studies department at SUNY Cortland, Asumah teaches political courses, many of which have a focus on multiculturalism, social change and the relationship between race and politics.

To do that, he and other professors teach using primary sources first-person or contemporary sources, like journals or newspaper clips showing history that might not be listed in a state- or school district-set curriculum.

We have to teach the experience of all people this is what we call inclusive education, Asumah said. To be able to acknowledge the history of not just race, but class, gender, people with disabilities and people from different regions and places. This is what makes America what it is.

Teaching teachers

Anna Burns Thomas, a professor of the foundations and social advocacy department at SUNY Cortland, said the profession of teaching remains predominantly white. To change that, Cortlands Urban Recruitment of Educators scholarship program is designed for students of color who are interested in becoming teachers.

There have been efforts over the past 25 years to try and increase the racial and gender and ethnic diversity of the teaching force, said Burns Thomas, the programs coordinator.

Working with these future teachers, Burns Thomas said she has realized how reading materials have become less Eurocentric over the years, and a wider variety of books for all ages showcases Black history.

Teachers can introduce their classrooms to not just the story of slavery and struggle, but the story of Black joy or Black excellence, Burns Thomas said. Thats one of the big focuses Ive seen shift over time when you think of Black history, there are many different Black experiences.

Seth Thompson, chief diversity officer for Tompkins Cortland Community College and a member of the Cortland Common Council, said its important for Black history and American history to be integrated as a shared story.

And not just about slavery, but our full story about how people of color and people who identify as white have worked to make this country what it is, Thompson said. There is a void within the curriculum.

Integrating history

Although some school districts do a fine job integrating truth into the curriculum, many textbooks leave out important parts of the histories of people of color, Thompson said.

Asumah recommends teaching Black history that took place in other areas, such as Mexico and Puerto Rico, as well as Black history dating before United States independence in 1776.

Burns Thomas suggests including Black history outside of the main inventors and big names that most curriculums already include.

Thompson wants students to learn more from primary sources, such as literature of the time, court documents and even current social media platforms to provide a perspective of Black history and culture.

Black history, Latinx history, native history our histories arent singular, Thompson said. For so long, textbooks in this country have been reproduced and updated minimally from a perspective of a time that had a very narrow lens of what history was and not what history is.

Being a teacher means learning more about history, the world and experiences beyond their own, Burns Thomas said.

Our future teachers know so much more than I did at their age, and I feel like social media is very educational to people who didnt grow up in a diverse environment learning about Black history, she said.

Young students who come into my classes are living history history is with us all the time, Asumah said. When I am teaching about the Black Lives Matter movement, I take them back to the liberation struggles of the 1960s, where we struggled for freedom, justice, equality and talked about the dispersion of power.

Not only in the past

The Black Lives Matter political and social movement aims to highlight racism, discrimination and inequality that Black people experience.

The movement began in July 2013 after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Black teen Trayvon Martin. In the years following, the movement became nationally recognized for street demonstrations and protests against police brutality and violence against people of color.

We are fighting for their lives and the fight started way back in the Civil Rights Movement and even before that, Asumah said. This is a continuation of a foundation that was built to challenge America to do the right thing. For justice.

Celebrating Black history

Tompson said Black History Month carves out a time for recognition and reflection, but people should appreciate Black people and their history year-round.

Its one of those bittersweet opportunities for people that identify as African American because we are mutual partners with the building of America, Tompson said. The integration of history needs to start sooner than later within our textbooks.

When educational materials do not include different groups histories and experiences, it manifests a limited appreciation for those groups today, Thompson said.

To Asumah, Black History Month is an opportunity to acknowledge how unique Americas history is, and to celebrate African-Americans strength.

We are celebrating Black resiliency. Black accomplishments are also American accomplishments without Black history, America is not complete, Asumah said. You cannot take Black excellence or Black achievements out of the American society.

The future generation

Thompson said he believes the next generation has the tools to lead this country, starting in the classroom. Teachers can transform and redevelop lesson plans, possibly entire curriculums, to educate students about topics like Black history.

We are blessed at this point in time and in our lives to have access to an unimaginable number of reliable primary sources, Thompson said.

These first-person or contemporary accounts of history help students to dissect and analyze that piece of history, Thompson said. This could be a national newspapers account of events that took place in New York a century ago, or the original lyrics of the Star-Spangled Banner.

You have to meet students, and people, where they are. The key point is to learn, and to not be afraid of what youll find out, Thompson said. What you find out will help center you and guide you, and those are the things that guide our actions.

Its all about spreading awareness, Aaron Bowen said before joining his sister and friends for the party. Were better for knowing.

But it goes beyond history, Asumah said. Black studies include perspectives in a number of fields: political science, economics, performing arts, theology, history, humanities. Even biology should be studied, considered and taught from a Black perspective.

People dont get the story well, he said. We have to think of all these aspects. Its about bringing back Black excellence.

Link:
'This is what makes America what it is': educators taught to include Black history through the year - North Country Public Radio