Racism in practice is divisive.
Talking and teaching about it
to prevent it from happening
is not divisive at all.
It's actually what we should be doing as instructors,
as teachers, as parents, and as a society.
I'm Hasan Kwame Jeffries, associate professor of history
at the Ohio State University,
and this is "America: History of Our Nation,"
published by Prentice Hall,
and it is used in eighth-grade US history.
One of the things that really leapt out to me
as I was reading this textbook was how much
the institution of slavery itself is downplayed.
There is no conversation at all
about the framers and founders of this nation
being enslavers themselves.
Jefferson, Madison, Washington, not referenced at all.
These are enslavers, but we never talk
about them being enslavers, and that's critical.
Because what we then wind up with,
certainly students wind up with,
is that, yes, slavery existed,
but we don't know how significant it was
to the making of the nation.
Eventually, they'll rationalize it away.
There is no sense at all
of the role of systemic racism
in the making of American society.
We never actually see how that will continue
to play out even after slavery is over.
It doesn't mention at all white supremacy.
There is no conversation at all about the way
in which the North is segregated by public policy.
And if you don't explain to them that race is a myth,
but that racism is real
and deployed to justify exploitation and oppression,
they'll actually default back to this idea
that the problems of oppressed people
are a function of their inability to do more.
The book I have here is entitled "America's History,"
made for AP US History, published by Bedford/St. Martin's,
and it is approved for use
in the states of Texas and Oklahoma.
There are some terminology and language issues in here.
Enslaved folk are not referred to as "enslaved folk,"
they're referred to as "slaves" throughout.
You create this tension in the mind of the reader
that they're still not quite fully human,
and that's real and needs to be addressed.
One of the very few mentions of Texas is
in reference to a lynching that occurs there in 1920.
It has a postcard of the lynching.
You see an untold number of white men.
Several of them are smiling, laughing,
enjoying the moment as the body
of this 20-year-old, Lige Daniels, hangs above them.
When we think about the series of new state laws
that have been passed in states like Texas and Oklahoma
designed to keep teachers and students from talking
about subjects that would make white students uncomfortable --
talking about this postcard should make them uncomfortable.
We should feel discomfort in that. Everyone should.
That doesn't make you responsible for it.
That makes you a human being
and recognizing the humanity of other people.
But you learn from that. You learn from it,
so hopefully we never do it again.
And so we finally get to a point where we're actually
having a real conversation about it.
And now to have these bills and measures
that are saying that you literally
cannot talk about this anymore,
that people are pulling books from libraries
because of how white people are portrayed in it,
is both disappointing and discouraging.
No child is responsible for what happened,
but children are responsible for tomorrow.
So the stakes are high. This book is
"United States History and Geography: Modern Times."
This is the Florida edition, published by McGraw Hill.
One of the things that is totally missing
are Florida examples.
I mean, there is really important African American history
that takes place in Florida
that impacts the nation as a whole.
The very first lesson is "Origins of the American Nation."
So cool, right?
But we still see the glaring absence
of African cultural contributions.
I think we omit that because it's not valued.
African people are not seen as contributors
to the early Florida experience,
when in fact, we know that they are.
Whether you were brought here in chains,
you don't leave your culture behind.
You bring it with you.
If the major contributions or discussions
of African American people are primarily in the margins,
what you are literally doing
is marginalizing the African American experience.
Here we have an example where we're going to talk about
"the land of cotton." Which almost puts a nice --
you think of those commercials, right?
Cotton, the fabric of our lives.
It almost has this nice spin to it.
Like, what are you talking about?
This is what is driving the institution of slavery.
It's a tool, that just in the pictures,
"Oh, that's harmless."
But what is the impact that that has?
Is there a better image that can be used
to describe the hardship of labor?
Just signaling to students is it's not as important.
What is it going to take to get these
textbook producers and curriculums and state standards
to adequately and accurately address
the African American experience?
It's literally going to take millions of people,
and young people in particular, taking to the streets,
demanding that history be told in an honest way.
That's why they were saying,
you've got to take down these monuments, right?
Crowd: No justice, no peace!
But we also saw the response that it would engender.
Crowd: White lives matter!
And that response has pulled things
not only back to where they were,
but have pulled them beyond that point.
Seeing the organized pushback does make me worry
about the education that my daughters will receive,
that this generation of young people will receive.
There is a myth of perpetual racial progress in America,
that things may be a little bit bad,
but they always absolutely get better.
Just let time pass. It'll create change.
No, time is not a social force capable of creating change.
People make change.
I want my daughters to understand
the American past and present,
to understand and appreciate
the African American experience.
And they can't do that if they're not told
the truth about the past.