It’s THAT time of year. Dr. King’s birthday and the federal holiday celebrating him and his work is fast approaching. And here’s my annual rant.
Teachers, STOP misleading students by only reading the last pages of Dr. King’s most famous speech.
Too many students are led to believe IN SCHOOL that this speech begins this way. STOP teaching a whitewashed, filtered down version of this man, his politics, and the realities of racism because you’re more comfortable with the idealism you see in the last three pages.
Read ALL of it with students. Help them study the ways Dr. King addresses the social, political, and economic conditions of Black Americans as a result of racism. To NOT do so is a misrepresentation and DISTORTION of the truth.
Teach about Bayard Rustin and James Baldwin and why they were NOT at the march and shed light on the legacy of racism and homophobia in this country across ALL racial groups.
Teach them about the Kennedy administration and how they actively worked to CONTROL the message at this march by keeping some revolutionaries out like Malcolm X.
Teach them to question the attempts by ALL to silence Black women like Angela Davis and Audre Lorde. And that Black women have ALWAYS resisted.
And teachers, if you’ve only read the last three pages of this speech yourself, then I also have a dream. That you’ll DO THE WORK to be the antiracist teacher ALL kids need you to be, not only for Dr. King Day or the month of February, but ALWAYS.
