Monday, November 9, 2009

Westerville's Be a Slave/See a Slave for a day "Educational" Opportunities: Needing Some thoughts from my teachers out there

I was in Westerville’s Public Library to pick up some books last week. On some shelving located at the exit were flyers announcing upcoming events for the city. One of those events was called "Explore the Underground Railroad" which, of course, will focus on the Underground Railroad (a series of homes and hide-away places, special routes, and communication styles that assisted enslaved blacks in America to escape). Ohio is special in that many escaping bonded blacks headed to Ohio for freedom at went to various parts of northern United States and Canada. During these few days of activities, elementary aged children would have "hands-on" activities such as mailing themselves like Henry Box Brown (a true story of a man who mailed himself to Pennsylvania, a free state), complete "slave" chores, sing "slave" songs and dress of as escaping "slaves." This is possibly in the same vein as Westerville organizers who were in charge of the “Freedom Trail” event earlier this year which involved “actors leading groups by foot and horse-drawn wagon to simulate the experience of fleeing slaves,” along with some of the attendees being "sold" as an element of the program.

In the art education reading for my research class, the author discusses connecting the “head, heart, and hand” in order to “shape a kind of community that is responsive to many different communities in different places and in different times and one that open’s many ways forward”. Stringer states that one of the challenges for teachers is to “accommodate the diversity that exists in their classrooms”. More specifically “Pride: Feelings of personal growth”, “Dignity: Feelings of competence”, “Identity: Acknowledging the worth of social identities” and “Place: Feelings of having a legitimate place in the social context.”

I am wondering how those Westerville events can be executed with the “head, heart, and hand” in mind? I’m on the fence about it. Somewhere between curious of how the events could be executed, wondering the motivation, and being a bit disturbed. From my understanding Westerville in a majority white population. Therefore, that would be their target audience. How would or could these activities instill pride, dignity, identity, and place in white children? How can this have a negative effect? Again, what’s the intent behind the project? What are African American or African children supposed to feel when then leave these events? Pride? In what? How was this event going to instill pride in them? Dignity? How so? Identity? An identity grounded in oppression? Place? How does teaching children that they are simply the descendants of slaves help them become better people, critical thinkers? I think the most disappointing thing in American school system is how African American history is always being grounded in one aspect of slavery or the supposed black experience. The narrative is usually, Africans were forced to come to the US, they came, worked (it was sad), they escaped thanks to Harriet Tubman, Abraham Lincoln officially free-ed the Negros, Martin Luther King Jr. helped them get their civil rights, now all is well in the US of A. But the narrative is much more “muddy,” if you will, and I have yet to see teachers trouble that narrative. If the organizers did this to promote relationships, communication, participation, and inclusion how can educators work to ask “what types of relationships are we trying to form and with whom?” “Who are we trying to communicate with and what are we trying to communicate?” “Who will be the participants and who will be excluded and why?” How can we create an arts-based curriculum that challenges notions of the standard African American narrative and challenge well-meaning teachers’ archaic approach?

How could we talk about the "slave" dress or redesign it? How could we dissect the "slave" songs? How could we discuss the feelings of Henry Box Brown and the politics behind the book written about his experience? How could we juxtapose the experiences of blacks who didn't come to the US as slaves but as indentured servants? Was freedom really free?

Now, I'm not opposed to or for any of the events. And I'm not saying we should avoid talking about slavery. But what about other perspectives? What were Africans (that remained in Africa) thinking? How does that/did that shape the way many Africans see African Americans?) Also, why do we keep using the word “slave”? The majority of captured Africans went to Brazil, then Caribbean and the least amount went to US. But most people don't associate those places with slavery. Often times people think (mostly or only) of the culture in the Caribbean and Brazil (music, food etc). Why is that? We don’t call Reggae “slave music”. We don’t call Afro-Brazilain music “slave music”, but we call songs like “Follow the Drinking Gourd” “slave songs”? Why not call it early African American gospel? Or simply an early African American music genre? Staples in Caribbean dishes are rice and beans. We then find that then are also in a variety of Latino/a - Hispanic dishes as well. That is directly connected to their living conditions during times of bondage and what they had access to. Is that “slave” food? The same for African Americans which we might call “soul food” (e.g. how my grandparents still eat chitlins’ (chitterlings or pig intestines) and pigs feet.) How can we discuss how history helped form a culture many embrace or people don’t even realize they embrace? Why does African Americans' history have to so tightly connected to slavery all reinforced by education and educational opportunities such as “be a slave for a day” activities? What happens when we start saying “displaced African” instead of slaves? What we do then, is show that they came from somewhere. And they are not labeled with an occupation forced upon them. That tells or implied to students that they not only came from somewhere but that they must have also brought something (knowledge/understandings/life perspectives etc) here with them.

For example, the French contained a number of their bonded people on the island of Haiti. It was because those enslaved came from a variety of nations and spoke a variety of languages thus they created what we know today as Haitian Creole (a hybrid of a variety of African languages and French also can be heard in the French quarter of Louisiana) in order to communicate behind the enslavers' backs. This created dialect so enabled them to conquer the French for their “freedom.” Where they speaking is calling Haitian Creole “slave language” really doing that history justice? There was nowhere to run. No Underground Railroad. They were on an island. It was France’s connection to Louisiana that brought that culture to the US. What we know now as Mardi Gras (a bit tainted by “Girls Gone Wild” series… an interesting feminist angle to possibly discuss) and Jazz Funerals. When many think of New Orleans most people don’t think of slavery yet it was the “slaves” that brought that culture. (A reason why Hurricane Katrina was historically and socially tragic, especially now with the gentrification that is happening) Can’t we do this differently? How can we blend the past and the present?
Since so many Black American runaways went to Canada, why not discuss how blacks influenced Canadian culture? What about comparing the communication styles between “displaced African’s" songs, “displaced African’s" quilts and Haitian Creole? Or talk about how the connection between West African oral tradition with stories and music created what we know today as hip hop?

Now, this proposed slave auction was a bit much for me to ponder. I see it similar to re-enacting the Holocaust. I don't think people would be too fond of that. People would find it highly problematic if children dressed up as if they were in concentration camps and instead of re-enacting a march to the auction block, re-enacted a march to gas chambers or the trains that led them to Auschwitz. I think the difference maybe, that we have video of concentration camps and personal testimonies on tape that has been widely dispersed and can give people a different understanding. Now there was the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) that collect narratives of formerly enslaved African Americans in the 1930s, but arguably those have not been widely dispersed and are not a part of the mainstream educational system. (I personally didn’t know about them until I was in graduate school). But regardless, those visuals are not available…. video of life on a plantation in the 1700s. But I'm wondering, if we compared the Holocaust and US slavery (even though arguably, they aren't equivalent) I wonder if making the Jewish discriminatory experience apart of US educational system gives US citizens a better understanding (presented with substantially more gravity) and a higher respect for Jewish tragedy than that of US slavery? For example, most students’ have to read Anne Frank's journal in middle school as opposed to Olaudah Equiano's narrative. What would happen if, instead of re-enacting Anne Frank in her cellar/basement hiding from the KGB (as many schools do as their school play), students re-enacted Equiano being forced in the hull of a slave ship? How would that work or not work? How would we teach that in a theater class and present it as a school play? Why or why not?

More thinking to do…. Your thoughts???