A classroom lesson on the American slave trade infuriated an African-American parent and many of those with whom she shared the story on social media.
Shardé Carrington, whose son is in 8th grade at Whitney High School (a grades 7-12 school), thought that the “Unique Learning Experience” noted in a September 5 email to parents was … rather misguided.
According to the Huffington Post, the email noted that in an upcoming lesson, teachers would play the role of “slave ship captains” and students would play slaves.
“Specifically, when class starts,” the email reads, “we will sternly tell them to line up outside the classroom, use masking tape to ‘tie’ their wrists together, make them lay on the ground inside the room (which will be dark) shoulder to shoulder with each other (boys and girls are in separate rows), and then while they lay there, have them watch a clip from ‘Roots.’”
Students would not be made aware of what was going on to add an element of “surprise” to the whole deal.
Carrington’s son had told her he already learned about the lesson from 9th graders who had gone through it the previous year.
“As the mother of a black child, I feared that my son’s participation would lead him to experience trauma, perhaps at the cellular level, and have a visceral reaction of anger and fear during the exercise itself,” Mrs. Carrington said.
[Carrington] knew, right away, that she would not be allowing her son to participate in the lesson. But she had questions and concerns. She wanted to know why this lesson had been given the green light in the first place.
In a response to the eighth-grade history instructors, Carrington stated that her son was forbidden from participating in the “demeaning and grossly insensitive exercise,” and argued that the experience of slavery cannot be summed up “with duct tape and a movie clip.”
Carrington, a paralegal by profession but currently a stay-at-home mom, questioned not only the racial insensitivity to students of color, but also the methodology and logic behind the lesson: “Would you simulate rape in order to encourage sensitivity toward survivors? Will children pretend to be in Japanese internment camps as well?”
Carrington said a counselor responded to her concerns first, then Principal John Briquelet, who assured her that the social studies department chair would soon be reaching out to her. The chair’s email, Carrington said, was disappointing to say the least:
The “overwhelming majority” of the responses to Carrington’s Facebook post, according to HuffPo, agreed with her assessment of the lesson.
Mrs. Carrington ended up contacting a professor of Africana Studies at Cal State-Long Beach who said she is “willing to meet with the Whitney High School staff ‘to help them develop a more appropriate way to discuss this matter with the students.’”
MORE: University’s history course on slavery has a new section on Donald Trump
MORE: Most college students think America invented slavery, professor finds
MORE: Principal: Standardized testing is ‘modern-day slavery’
IMAGE: Shutterstock
Like The College Fix on Facebook / Follow us on Twitter
Please join the conversation about our stories on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, MeWe, Rumble, Gab, Minds and Gettr.