IT STARTS WITH YOU!
As educators we send messages to our students everyday both explicitly and implicitly. The questions that we must ask ourselves are " WHAT messages are we sending to our students?" and "How can we go about changing those that are implicitly and explicitly racially biased?" This website aims to give primary educators the tools and resources they need to successfully implement black history into their curriculum and classrooms. The hope is that through this implementation it increases the racial identity development of black students especially those in predominately white schools.
In our role as educators it is extremely important that you change the narrative that has been set forth for hundreds of years which has been that black people are "savages, less than, and insignificant". It starts with YOU!
KNOWLEDGE OF SELF
African Americans have been stripped of their knowledge of self since they were first held captive and brought to this country in slave ships. Elijah Muhammad once said " Anyone who does not have a knowledge of self is considered a victim of amnesia or unconsciousness and is not very competent"
As educators it's our duty to stop the cycle and instill that knowledge of self through the inclusion of African American history. By choosing to include this history in school curriculum and or classrooms you can help African American child feel included and valued in a world that makes then feel insignificant.
RACIAL IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT
"Racial identity concerns the extent to which people of color are aware of, understand, and value their racial background and heritage. The main premise of this theory is: Do people of color recognize and value their racial background and appearance?" -TC Grantham, DY Ford