Rob,

Spot on. It definitely goes beyond teachers. The silence is real.

Depending on the school district, even the focus on history is all too white. When we do choose to focus on diverse parts of history, the stories are painted in white walls. The most basic example is the cherry picking of the pieces we do like to talk about regarding Martin Luther King Jr. — usually I Have a Dream and Letter From Birmingham Jail. How often do we go beyond these two pieces in the classroom? I don’t have an answer.

We really do barely scrape the surface curriculum wise. James Baldwin? Ella Baker? George Washington Carver? Fannie Lou Hamer? I don’t come across many high school students that can go beyond MLK or Malcolm X. I’m hoping that’s just me.

Maybe education correlates directly with the ability to openly discuss.