Kevin Cokley: Texas needs to teach ethnic studies accurately

What is a cause for concern are discussions on the specific content and focus of these courses. They should reflect an accurate portrayal of history that is not distorted.

For example, schools have often failed in teaching the painful history of slavery. What students learn in school should not be beholden to teachers’ discomfort or the political whims of individuals who are not experts in topics being taught.

As a professor of black studies and educational psychology and a longtime member of the National Council of Black Studies, I have had more than 20 years of experience teaching black studies courses.

Among the topics covered in my classes is a close examination of the enslavement of African people. The topic is provocative and often upsetting for students as they learn specific details about slavery that they report not having learned in their K-12 education. Horrific details such as sleeping in filth on the slave ships or mothers throwing their babies overboard to a certain death. I do not spare the students from these details, because it is important that students fully understand the brutal acts that humans are capable of doing to others.

The explicit details of racial/ethnic oppression can make ethnic studies a lightning rod for controversy. The documentary Precious Knowledge illustrates the political repercussions when Tucson High School in Arizona implemented Mexican American studies into the curriculum. Opponents there called for a shutdown of ethnic studies and characterized the teachers as anti-American zealots and the ethnic studies curriculum as teaching hate speech and sedition.

Of course, none of these accusations is true. The nature of ethnic studies involves not only documenting the positive contributions of ethnic minorities but also addressing the not-so-flattering aspects of our histories. Teaching the history of slavery is pedagogically and emotionally challenging. It requires teachers to be more than subject matter experts. The point in teaching slavery is not about assigning blame but rather to educate students about one of the most important events of our nation’s history and how it informs our understanding of contradictions surrounding the American value of equality.

Attempts to sanitize the history of slavery include one online resource that refers to the enslaved Africans brought to Jamestown as “lucky.” One attempt to make the teaching of slavery more “palatable” for some students is a desire by some to emphasize African culpability — the idea that Africans owned slaves and were complicit in European slavery. To emphasize the role of collaborators in the oppression of their people is a distortion and misrepresentation of history.

As we approach this historic moment in Texas education, let us hope that the course stays true to the historical roots of ethnic studies in this country, one born of struggle and grounded in self-determination. It would be a profound mistake to allow ideological motivations to determine the content and approach of this course.