Including ALL of our history

Some things are just hard to believe.

I received a tweet from EIFdotorg the other day saying, "TX Conservatives seek to remove a woman, a Hispanic, and a Black man from Social Studies curriculum," and then referenced this article: Conservatives seek to shift focus of state social studies lessons.

Surely, they were exaggerating.

But, sure enough, here are some quotes from the article:

"To have César Chávez listed next to Ben Franklin" – as in the current standards – "is ludicrous," wrote evangelical minister Peter Marshall, one of six experts advising the state as it develops new curriculum standards for social studies classes and textbooks.

Marshall also questioned whether Thurgood Marshall, who argued the landmark case that resulted in school desegregation and was the first black U.S. Supreme Court justice, should be presented to Texas students as an important historical figure. He wrote that the late justice is "not a strong enough example" of such a figure.

Both Barton and Marshall also singled out as overrated Anne Hutchinson, a New England pioneer and early advocate of women's rights and religious freedom, who was tried and banished from her Puritan colony in Massachusetts because of her nontraditional views. "Anne Hutchinson does not belong in the company of these eminent gentlemen," he said, referring to colonial leaders William Penn, Roger Williams and others.

How can we continue to say that Black people, Hispanic people, and women have made no real contribution to our society? How can we claim that someone like Ben Franklin deserves to be in a history book, but César Chávez does not?

The arguments I've heard is that including diversity in the curriculum requires that we take out all of the "important people" in order to have enough room to include others (i.e. women and people of other ethnicities). Who originally determined who those "important people" are? Where is the rating scale and what do we look for to determine that? How does someone like Peter Marshall get to be the authority figure on what is and isn't important?

I'm not suggesting that Ben Franklin is any less important than César Chávez. There have been a lot of contributions to our society over the years. We wouldn't be in the position we are without all of those contributions. The light bulb, electricity, and the first president of the United States were important contributions. But so was the filament that goes in the light bulb, the stop light, windshield wipers, COBOL (a common computer language), Kevlar (the material that makes bullet proof vests bullet proof) , color television, and so many more--contributions made by women and people of color.

Including women and people of color in the text books aren't about excluding white men. It's about including the contributions of every sector of our society.

Acknowledging the work of César Chávez

It's not hard to figure out that we value the things that we know and are most familiar with. Unfortunately, it has not been until fairly recently that the contributions of people of color have been deemed important.

In 2009 we still live in a segregated society. Sometimes we don't even recognize how segregated we are. Look at your neighborhood. Count the people on your street who don't look like you. Go to church. Count the people at your church who don't look like you. (before you answer that you have diversity in your community or your church, let me clarify. Having one or two families does not count as diversity.).

It's not that people of color haven't contributed any knowledge to society. We simply don't recognize their contributions. Our history books and other text books are slowly getting better, but they, for the most part, credit the major contributions to White males.

In a blog post on March 29, I showed where technology is headed. At the end of the video, you can see the guy who created the amazing system. I'm guessing he's Indian-American. I have heard little about him or his amazing innovation, but much about Bill Gates. It's just the way we work.

All of that to say that it's good to see more people of color in leadership who will challenge us to recognize the efforts of so many others we have disregarded all of these years. So I thank Dr. Hinojosa for pledging to make March 31 a recognition day for and education day about César Chávez. I hope the rest of us will follow this lead and learn more about the depth of what he contributed to our country.

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A Proud Day for Dallas...
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
By Alberto E. Ruiz

Starting today, Dallas ISD students will celebrate the legacy of one of our nation's great civil right leaders by learning about his important life's work. Julian Resendiz of Al Dia reported that César Chávez would no longer be a mystery for students in the 5th grade of Dallas public schools. "Every year on March 31st", stated Michael Hinojosa, DISD superintendant, "our young people will be given special lessons on service and learning through school curriculum." The entrenched superintendant added, "There are things that I can control and this is one of them." He told a crowd at the Latino Cultural Center during the Cesar Chavez Arts Tribute on Sunday.

"It was something that the community sugested. People came to us, some of our administrators studied it and said, 'Claro que sí, sí se puede hacer'", said Hinojosa. "It's a good recommendation and right on time, since we are celebrating his birthday."

While Dallas ISD plans to implement Chávez in it's curriculum, the Mayor and City Councilmembers proclaimed March 31st as César Chávez Day in the nation's 9th largest metropolitan area. The detailed proclamation was read by Councilmembers, Dr. Elba Garcia an Steve Salazar, during the event that the LCC. Dallas remains the only city out of the nation's top 10 without a major thoroughfare in honor of the civil rights icon.

A mass also took place at the Cathedral of Guadalupe on Saturday morning, which was followed by a march led by LULAC District 3 and the Dallas Peace Center. After arriving at the Farmer's Martket against a strong and cold wind, students and adults listened as Ft. Worth State Representative Lon Burnam stated, I'm not your representative but on behalf of your sister city to the west I want you to know that you deserve to be heard and to have the street that you desire for César Chávez."

Pondering the May elections for city council, the state of our economy and our nation's renewed trust in social justice advocates and unity coalitions. Indeed, it is a proud day in Dallas, where despite a heavy hand over the mouth of residents, together we shouted: Si se puede, Yes we can!

Below are details of the Tribute that took place on Sunday, March 29 at the Latino Cultural Center.

Should we cancel Black History Month?

Evidently there's an effort to cancel Black History Month. Their argument is that Black History should be celebrated year-round and it is paternalistic toward Black people to only celebrate it one time out of the year.

I agree that Black History should be incorporated into our regular American History text books and classes. However, the fact of the matter is, it's not.

When I teach my Diversity and Equity in Education course at Texas A & M-Commerce, I have the students do several activities to help them become more aware of our lack of awareness. I would challenge you to do the same. Let's try an activity...and please don't read ahead.

Only take about 3-5 minutes for each of the following questions. Try to scroll only as far as the end of the direction.

List 6 people who, in your judgment, have made important, positive contributions to the world or to U. S. society and culture.

Great.

Now list 6 men and 6 women who, in your judgment, have made important, positive contributions to the world or to U. S. society and culture.

Excellent.

Now list 6 Whites, 6 Black/African Americans, 6 Hispanic/Latino/Latina Americans, 6 American Indians/Native Americans, and 6 Asian Americans who, in your judgment, have made important, positive contributions to the world or to U. S. society and culture.

Perfect.

Now look at your lists.

What are the demographics of your first list? What was the dominant culture you listed? What was the dominant gender?

How much more challenging was it to name female contributors?

How well did you do when asked to list 6 people in each culture?

I've done this with quite a few groups...and the results are always the same. More than likely, whether your Black, White, Asian, Hispanic, or any other culture, your first list consisted mostly of males and mostly of White people. More than likely, it was a little challenging to list 6 women. And it is likely that you're now thinking of women and saying that you just didn't have enough time (which is part of the point...the point is to list the people you think of off the top of your head). And finally, more than likely, it was easy for you to list 6 White people, more challenging to list 6 African-Americans, and even harder as you went through the other cultures.

Also, look at how many of your White contributors are intellectuals vs. sports heroes and entertainers. How does that compare to your Black contributors?

I'm guessing that everyone put President Obama on their list...probably Martin Luther King, maybe Rosa Parks. But if you take out the popular ones talked about every Black History month, who else did you put?

What about Garrett Morgan who invented the stoplight? Matthew Henson who was the first one to help discover the north pole? John Lewis, a major person in the civil rights movement and now a congressman? Diane Nash, another major leader during the civil rights movement? Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, Richard Wright...all great authors?

Black History month (February)...Hispanic Heritage month (Sept. 15-Oct. 15)...Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (May)...and many others...are still important because to this point, other cultures simply haven't been integrated into our regular lives enough for any of us to easily recognize those achievements.

I completely agree that Black History (and every other cultural history) should be incorporated into a regular history lesson year-round. But I listen to teachers every semester tell me, "We don't have time." For some reason, people still see other cultures as an additional burden. Until teachers and others figure out that every culture has made significant contributions to our country, the focused months are still needed.

Robinson and Stackhouse...#42

Jerry Stackhouse, on the Dallas Mavericks, is #42. I never knew why. Evidently, he's always worn #42 because it was Jackie Robinson's number. Stackhouse recognizes that Robinson paved the way for other people of color in all sports. So many people don't take time to know about our history and know why things are the way they are. Stackhouse wants to always remember.

Today, on Jackie Robinson Day (the 60 year anniversary of Robinson breaking baseball's color barrier), Stackhouse asked the NBA if they would allow him to use "Robinson" in place of "Stackhouse" on his jersey. They denied him that opportunity. Not wanting to lose the opportunity to honor Robinson, Stackhouse wrote JACKIE ROBINSON on the outside of each of his sneakers.

Thank you, Jackie Robinson, for having the amazing courage to endure what you did.

Thank you, Jerry Stackhouse, for honoring that memory and reminding the rest of us.