☆ Educators clash on colonization curriculum focus for Bay Area youth
Continuing an Opp Now exclusive series, experienced educators Natalie Thoreson, Larry Sand, and Kevin McGary debate the merits—and dangers—of spotlighting colonization as “the root” of society's turpitudes in local high school workshops. Brazenly varied, candid perspectives below.
On Anti-Colonialism as a Curricular Focus:
Educational experts Kevin McGary, Larry Sand, and Natalie Thoreson break down their thoughts on rEVOLution's instructional emphasis on anti-colonialism, and if they believe it's harmful to centralize colonization as “the root” of modern society's evils.
Kevin McGary: Colonialism is a part of our nation's issues. The only disconnect is when it's taught as if America is completely unjust, has always been unjust from its very beginnings, because we colonized lands from Native Americans. When it's emphasized that we killed off tribes and colonized land, but there's a much fuller picture to be studied (e.g., extensive negotiations for some of the land, some conflicts legitimately won by the United States). If students are being instructed too heavily about colonization, they acquire an unfair characterization of America. They believe they should hate their country, not be proud of it.
I think there's a way to teach this topic historically while not creating a narrative about oppression (which makes me think of the harmful 1619 Project).
Larry Sand: No one is making an argument for colonization. Our country started out as colonies, and then we rebelled and became independent. But at this point in time, there's no colonialism in this country now. Why talk about it as if it's still affecting every aspect of our lives?
Yes, there's people of differing intelligence and wealth and so on in America, but you can't point the finger at other people for that. Individuals are ultimately responsible for their own situations. And in general, it's a terrible thing to teach children that big, bad, powerful people are out to damage them. It's a very destructive message for children, not to mention all of society.
Natalie Thoreson: Most folks haven't chosen to engage in systematic oppression. If I asked folks on the street, “Do you want racism to exist?”, just about every person would say “no.” But if we can't have conversations about the origin of racism, it's difficult to actually challenge those systems.
As an example, whiteness (as well as “person of color”) is a construction created from a place of extreme wealth that came with the colonization that happened in America. It was a way to separate and disconnect poor and indentured white people from black enslaved folks. It is a construction created so that resources, including humans, could be taken from around the world. Humans were used and disposed of.
The white legacy, the constructions as we know legally in the US, came out of legislation established after Bacon's Rebellion. Nathaniel Bacon was a white landowner and member of the governor’s Council. He was able to inspire poor and indentured white people and black enslaved people to come together and rebel. The wealthy elite were able to hire a militia to stop the rebellion and quickly enacted two laws to push poor whites and black folks apart. The laws basically stated that white people when released from indenture must be given a weapon and land or money to purchase land. The laws also stated that black people could never own a weapon and that they could never go against a white person in a court of law.
When you know information like this, you can recognize that people on the same side of the struggle began to be pushed apart. We live with this and so many other pieces of a colonial legacy still today.
This article is part of an exclusive Opp Now series, in which three educational experts also analyze oppression-based instruction from varied perspectives.
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