We must teach children the truth about racism
I have a few thoughts regarding the article “School policy sparks debate,” May 4, in which the community of Saratoga Springs is discussing its school district’s plans to teach students anti-racism.
A school board member, Dean Kolligian, stated that the word “anti-racism” is “harsh,” and that it “pains” him to have the conversation. The Facebook page Moving Saratoga Forward claims the new approach would teach kids that they’re racist oppressors.
There seems to be a misunderstanding. No one is accusing individual kids of being racist. Anti-racism is simply about full inclusion and equality for minorities, especially citizens of color. It’s not about making a child feel personally responsible for colonialism or racism. It’s about teaching the unavoidable truth that, from its inception, American society has been exclusionary and prejudiced, socially and legally, on the basis of race. Our Founding Fathers, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, kept chattel slaves, after all.
Our children need to be taught the truth about racism in order to right a centuries-long painful injustice that has been perpetuated for far too long by ignorance and indifference on the part of the white majority. Kolligian’s “pain” pales by comparison to the stubborn racism that is a daily pain and a threat to the wellbeing of our minority citizens.
There is no path forward for true equality until we address this painful past. We see the results of racism, right now, today, in 2021. Anyone white in this country does enjoy a certain privilege, i.e. not being excluded from full citizenship, because of their skin tone. It’s past time for us to take a hard look at ourselves, our policies, our laws and law enforcement, and make the policy changes necessary to include all of us.
Schoolchildren need not be protected from our country’s failings. They are the future, and they can only insist on an equal future for all if they know the accurate history of our country’s racist past.
Susannah Sulzman Albany