SPEAKER_00 0:23

It's important that before we teach our students about the slave trade, that we teach our students who the Africans were, how the Africans lived, and what the Africans contributed to America. Hi, my name is Miss Ayres. I am certified an elementary school teacher for 15 years here in the state of Virginia and a 20-year Navy war veteran. Welcome to my new classroom, Dr. King's class. I became an educational activist and started this podcast with just one mission, to add African contributions to the elementary social studies curriculum. In Dr. King's class, we infused African contributions during our students' Foundation of America lesson. When we introduce our students to the Greek culture and the Roman culture, in this class, we also introduce our students to the African culture, who the Africans were, how the Africans lived, and what the Africans contributed to America. I created this podcast because when I was in elementary school, my teacher infused African contributions into his lesson plan. And it made a difference in my life then because I decided to become an educator, and it made a difference in my life now as a public school teacher and now an educational activist. In 2004, after I completed 20 years in uniform, I returned to Virginia because I knew I was becoming a public school teacher. And as I was preparing for a social studies lesson, I was doing the research on the Greek culture and the Roman culture, and it was then that I realized African contributions had been omitted from the elementary social studies curriculum. I was disappointed because I know the importance of laying the foundation early in our students' elementary experience. During the foundation of our students' learning. So in 2020, when COVID closed down in-person learning in the public classroom, that was when I started preparing for a new type of classroom, Dr. King's class. And our mission is to petition the Board of Education, petition your local government official to add African contributions, to infuse African contributions into the elementary social studies curriculum. Because social studies is one curriculum that's routinely updated, depending on the needs of the parents and local community. He said that this government, this educational system, was not founded by Negroes for Negroes, but founded by white men for white men. There were literacy laws on the books back then against teaching African Americans how to read. And today, states and government has put new laws on the books to continue to lie to our students, preventing school districts from teaching the true history of America. One of my mentors, Naeem Akbar, a historian, he says, lie generation after generation. America has been miseducated. If we're not teaching our students that Africa was a thriving civilization before the slave trade, if we're not teaching our students who the Africans were before they were forced into slavery, if we're not introducing our students to Africa, the second largest continent in the world, we are miseducating our students. We understand how it all started. The slave trade was in effect to make it necessary to lie to Americans. Naeem Akbar said, because of the miseducation, because Africa and African contributions have been left out of the social studies history books on purpose. This was done to justify the slave trade. We understand why Africans and white Americans have been miseducated. The mentality back in the 1800s, Dr. Naeem Akbar states a nigger should know nothing about reading. All they should know is how to obey their master. You will spoil a nigga if you teach him how to read. We might as well set them free. And we understand that in a culture you don't educate the people that you are going to dominate. So it was in the interest of the slaveholders and the government to keep enslaved laborers ignorant. They were afraid that if we learned to read and write, we would escape to freedom. We understand how it all started. But if you still have this same level of consciousness, then you're the problem. Because it is time. Our students are ready for the truth. Our students are ready to learn about the rich culture from the African continent. Our students are learning bits and pieces already, but they deserve to learn about who the Africans were before they were forced into slavery. There's a movement in this country. And this movement is led by students, parents, and the local community. This movement is demanding that states and local officials add African contributions to the elementary social studies curriculum. Don't try to erase history. The same states, government official, board of education that are putting laws on the books to remove information. These are the same entities that can put laws on the books to ensure that our students are getting a proper education, side by side. American history is a painful history. And our students will learn about the slave trade, we'll learn about civil rights and the civil war. But we owe it to our students to teach them who the Africans were that was forced into slavery. We can't start teaching about black culture starting with the slave trade. But some white Americans, Americans are working so hard because they are ashamed of American history. There is so much about American history to be ashamed of. There's the good and the bad, but we can't pick and choose. Some white Americans are afraid to have that conversation with their children about serious social issues. This is not an easy topic. I know there's pride in your history, but American history, good, both good and bad, must be taught in the classroom. Allow those students information and time to dialogue with this content with each other and with their educators in a controlled environment. That's how they introduce the Greek culture, and that's how they introduce the Roman culture. That is how we must introduce the African culture. Our students look different. Our students are different. Our students will experience different issues in this world, and they are not ready to meet these new issues if we're giving them the same old information. We may not be ready. My generation, many of uh of my generation is not ready, but our students are ready, and we must listen to them and know what it is we must do to support that need. You know, my personal experience, the first time I saw a picture of a slave family in chains for sale, I thought it was a horror story. I didn't know what I was looking at. I hate, I hated the fact that I was blonde. I didn't think anything positive came out of Africa but slave labor. I felt inferior, I felt uncivilized. But my elementary school teacher balanced the curriculum and he infused who the Africans were before the slave trade. He introduced the kingdoms and the pyramids and King Tut and Queen Nefertiti. Yes, they're they were black. We cannot continue to lie to our students about this topic because they're already learning the truth. Let's lay it out in the curriculum, in a lesson plan, where there's resources and uh assessments and and projects and field trips. This miseducation and the lie started in the classroom and it should continue by adding the truth in the classroom. Let's stop the lie generation after generation and face our history.

SPEAKER_03 10:39

No, no, no, no, it was not created by black Africans. I'm sorry. It wasn't who created it? People who are white. So men originated in Africa, uh-huh, which means that they were Africans. Then all of a sudden, when you talk about uh the uh amazing works of the Egyptians, they were people of color. I know that's a little rough for you to handle. I know you want to hold on to that somehow for your white book of pyramids, but I'm trying to understand. Yeah, we didn't. No, you didn't. No, you didn't. Because first of all, they were building things in Egypt while white Europeans were still in caves. Uh that's a fast. That is Africa. That's a fact. So the greatest genius you came to the building of the pyramids, which you would you know what they're white people, by the way. The uh Egyptians are not African. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_01 11:32

Do you know where Egypt is? Yes, it's a north Africa. Many of the early archaeologists came to the study of ancient Egypt and ancient Nubia from the perspective of Semitic languages or the study of the Hebrew Bible, and it was very important to them to bring Egypt specifically into the sphere of biblical studies. And so they had to carve Egypt away from Africa to bring it into that sphere. And the way that they did that was they used race. So these early archaeologists effectively made ancient Egypt white in the sense that they made it part of a dominant Western culture. And ancient Nubia was separated from that, it was black. And this was how they took Egypt out of Africa and put it into this Semitic sphere, this biblical sphere.

SPEAKER_00 12:38

We, America, must be brave and we must face our history for the next generation. Our history has some hard truths and and it's painful, and I I want to approach it with love, respect, and empathy. The power of miseducation by Naeem Akbar. He says, We have lied to our children generation after generation in the classroom, and now the truth is being exposed. African contribution is well documented, and it has been intentionally left out of the public classroom. African contributions have been left out of the history books, the history books that our students learn from in the public classroom. Victor Hugo says you cannot stop a thing when the time is right. And America is learning the truth that Africa had a thriving civilization and had many contributions to the foundation of America. White parents are worried sick that their children are being taught that they are the oppressors and then that they must pay for their past privileges. America, they have taken that concern to the school boards and state legislators, and their state-elected officials, critical race theory, 2020.

SPEAKER_02 14:18

I mean, imagine you go all around the world and smash up everything that other civilizations built, loot what they built, pillage, steal, even steal their ideas and their concepts and their philosophies, and then you sit on top of this mountain of stolen goods and declare yourself to be rich because of your own merit. Imagine telling this lie to your children, to your own children, to your grandchildren, generation after generation. How do you think that's gonna go? You didn't invest in creating actual merit. You cheated, you lied, you stole, you frugalized, and then you tell your own people that everyone else in the world has nothing and you have everything because of how much better you are than everyone else. How long is that life sustainable? I mean, these are people who actually have civilizations, who actually created and built and accomplished and didn't just pillage and plunder. And they're still those people today, even though you have oppressed them, they're still those same people. And you're still the way you are. A good example actually is African Americans. I don't know if you can think of a people uh with more held back, more deprived, more sabotaged than African Americans. You took everything away from them. You took them away from everything. They started in your country uh at less than zero, literally regarded and treated as subhumans, not allowed to learn to read or write or anything for hundreds of years. But you see, they come from a people of accomplishment to one degree or another. Not a people of piracy and theft and appropriation. They come from a people uh who created and built and developed in their own countries, in their own land. And even though you did everything that you could possibly do to suppress them, to hold them down, to hold them back, and you're still doing that until today. Nevertheless, uh I don't think anyone can dispute the fact that African Americans have become a global cultural superpower. And people like this, with a history like this, with a legacy like this, uh certainly cannot be held back for any length of time. I have people who do not have a similar history, people who have have never actually invested uh in their own civilizational development.

SPEAKER_00 16:40

Critical race theory. White Americans do not want to have that uncomfortable conversation with their children about real-life social issues like systemic racism. Critical race theory in 2020 that became a major focus, focusing on public education K through twelve. Laws were put on the books to allow states and the local government to prevent black history from being taught in the public education. We're going from one line omitting African contributions from the social studies curriculum to another line, trying to erase parts of history all together. For hundreds of years, America purposely omitted the truth from being told in the public classroom. Now we're trying to erase. Why? I know why. Because America is ashamed of how their ancestors treated African immigrants during the slave trade. They're ashamed of the the lies that were told and the brutality that was part of the slave's reality. Yeah, we understand why America tries to erase history or or want us to forget about the atrocities of the slave trade. White parents are worried sick that their children are being taught that they are the oppressors and that they must pay for their past privileges. My neighbor, I have a white neighbor that I've known for decades. But in 2020, we would have these heated discussions. But to summarize, my neighbor said that, and I quote, my son will not be ashamed of being white. He was supporting the critical race theory by racing parts of history because he did not want his son to be ashamed of being white. Therein lies the issue. I mean, today, I don't blame my neighbor because we know how it all started. We know how this racist imbalance curriculum, we know why it was created. Because of the mindset back in the 1800 that rationalized the slave trade. It was created to maintain and support the institution of the slave trade. I don't blame my neighbor today, but I do blame America's if you are continuing the lie, continuing to feed our babies the same lies we were fed. That's an Albert Einstein quote that I love. It is time that our students in elementary school start learning the truth that Africa was a thriving civilization before the slave trade. And that must be taught before we introduce our students to the slave trade. You know, Dr. Martin Luther King, one of his quotes, says that racism gives white America a false sense of superiority, and it gives black America a false sense of inferiority. And I remember how I felt the first time I learned about the slave trade, the first time I saw a slave family for sale with chains around their neck, I felt inferior. I was embarrassed to be black. I didn't want to learn anything about Africa because I didn't think anything good came out of Africa. I felt ashamed. Felt mad that it is time to repair American history. No child, black or white, should have that experience of not knowing who the African immigrants were before they were forced into slave trade. The same state and government officials that are putting laws on the books across this nation to try to erase African blueprint and not to teach it in the classroom are the same state and local officials that can add African contributions into the social studies curriculum. So let's insist that our government officials do the right thing. States across this nation are already confronting race centuries of racial injustice that's embedded into the elementary. My focus is elementary social studies curriculum. The same government officials. That's why it's it's important that we parents. Parents and local communities petition our Board of Education. This was a man-made problem, and we can fix this problem at the grassroot level. So let's not continue to allow America's racist social studies curriculum to continue to divide our children. Let's teach them in the classroom that we have a shared history. Support Dr. King's classroom, where the curriculum is more balanced. The balanced curriculum by adding the missing piece. And that missing piece is African contribution. Everyone benefits when we tell the truth in the classroom. And the truth is Africa was a thriving civilization before the slave trade. When we teach this truth, the students benefit. The teachers benefit in this world benefit. And I'll leave you with one of Dr. Martin Luther King's quotes. Take the first step in faith. You do not have to see the whole staircase, but just take the first step. I'll see you next time. Class Dismissions.