Trump is trying to turn K-12 into my experience at Northern Michigan University
Anti-DEI ultimatums in K-12 schools is solely to make sure Black students do not learn American history properly
I walked into the lecture hall, glancing over at Molefi Kete Asante from the front of the room. The lecture hall was packed for this in-person author experience. Some people in the audience included those in my grad school class, who were assigned to read “Erasing Racism: The Survival of the American Nation.” I’d already enjoyed reading the book — minus one encounter with another student in our class — so I knew this would be a lively discussion.
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At the time, I was attending a private Catholic graduate school. Why? Not a clue. I’m neither Catholic nor had I ever attended private school before. But this was one of the top colleges in Chicago, and I had turned into Denise Huxtable when it came to picking a major. I switched it three times — Communications, Public Relations, then Writing. I still hadn’t paid my undergraduate student loans, but I had convinced myself I really needed to go to grad school after taking a yearlong break post-graduation. And if I was going to go to an in-state university, it better be worth it!
Good times, great teachers
I’d already had the most horrendous time ever at a predominantly white institution, then transferred so I could have my “A Different World” experience at an HBCU, where I was far more comfortable. The latter university reminded me of the K-8 experience I was used to, with instructors (almost all Black) who were not afraid to discuss Black history, Black literature and Black economics before I was even a pre-teen. I loved it!
Recently, I read a book — “Harriet Tubman: Military Scout and Tenacious Visionary: From Her Roots in Ghana to Her Legacy on the Eastern Shore” — in which one of the authors mentioned how their classroom books only described Tubman as a “fugitive with a bounty on her head.” Meanwhile, I had an altogether different opinion of Tubman at that same grade level (third grade).
Recommended Read: “Life before slavery: African history gets the silent treatment in U.S. schools ~ Teaching U.S.’s mistreatment of Africans is important, but what about pre-slavery?”
Still, I’d readied myself for grad school to mirror the mindset of attending that aforementioned PWI (Northern Michigan University). I couldn’t have been more wrong, mainly because these were non-Black professors (and students) who were born and raised in the city of Chicago and used to seeing people who didn’t look like them. Certain parts of Chicago are segregated, but other areas are the epitome of diversity, equity and inclusion. And that’s what my grad school classrooms felt like, even if it looked nothing like my K-8 classrooms or my HBCU classrooms.
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Trump would call my grad school teachers “woke,” but I call them “fair”
My grad school professors (all white men and women) were giving my HBCU and K-8 (mainly black and Hispanic) teachers a run for their money. I didn’t even know what “white privilege” or “white entitlement” meant before I got to this school. A white male professor insisted that we read Asante’s book. Then, a white woman instructor refused to teach anything unrelated to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on MLK Day during my evening class. The Critical Race Theory agitators would have had panic attacks in my classes for sure, but I had the best time while I was there. My boss was an alma mater at my grad school, which was one of the reasons she was interested in hiring me for my first publishing job.
The ultimatum Trump is giving anti-racist teachers and professors
As much as I loved my time there, I’m a little sad when I think back on this time period because the Trump administration is backing instructors like mine into a corner. Every single solitary thing these instructors do can get their grants revoked, get them terminated or strip the whole school of money based on civil discourse.
This is going to leave students in a state of ignorance, sitting side-by-side with the “I don’t see color” and “race doesn’t matter” types, who won’t know anything at all in literature, history, science, math (and possibly music and sports) when it comes to Black people. The Trump administration is unapologetically trying to wipe out everything but white history — and this was the exact reason I left NMU on a hostile note with a few professors. I was not having that shit, and I refused to allow a university to treat an entire group of people like they’d done nothing to contribute to American history.
The lecture hall, the speaking event and the altercation
This takes me back to the encounter I’d had before the author speaking event in the townhall. Anyone who has read “Erasing Racism: The Survival of the American Nation” knows just how historically honest this book is. And there was a woman in our classroom who was upset while reading this book, declaring to our professor that she didn’t enjoy this book because, “It’s disrespectful to white people.”