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. White Americans and local officials are trying to erase parts of American history because they are ashamed, ashamed of their ancestors, how this system of racism was created and perpetuated decades after decades. Shame on America for miseducating our children. My focus is to add African contributions into the elementary social studies curriculum, but that's not about black history. It's not my history, it's American history, and it must be a part of the social studies curriculum. So America has been miseducated. And the definition, my definition of miseducation is to suppress or deprive a group of a group of the knowledge of their factual history, depriving them of the of their identity and culture. All civilization started in Africa. So our social studies lesson can't start during the slave trade because that's not the whole truth. We have to start elementary social studies teaching who the Africans were before they were forced into slavery. Our students should learn about the continent of Africa because that's the cradle of civilization. Students must learn that Africa was a thriving civilization, and our students must be taught the truth, and the truth that does not start with the institution of slavery. They are debating on which laws they can put on the books and which parts of black history should be taught. And Byron Allen says there's only one black history that should be taught. The truth. Shame on America going from one lie to another, lied by omission in the public classroom by not telling the true history, not teaching the true history of America. Now, shame on America for trying to erase parts of American history. A teacher, uh Jennifer Lee, uh in Texas Public Schools said, and I quote, she said, specifically editing out that you can't teach that white supremacy was morally wrong is deeply concerning. She said, Altering of history is sickening. And having the power to mis-educate is a crime against humanity. Naeem Akbar, he went on to say white America is proud of their racist history with statues and monuments. But the moment an educator teaches their children about what the Confederacy stood for and how it affected African Americans, then it became a problem. I witnessed that firsthand with my my neighbor. He was a white gentleman. I've known him for uh over 10 years, but in 2020, he came over with fear and anger and passion and showed me his brand new gun. He banished a weapon, and he said that he will fight to make sure his son won't feel ashamed of being white. Because of the horrible history of America, we want to erase. Let's try a different tactic. Let's start telling the truth in the classroom. But instead of truth, these fearful concerns, they took it to the school board and state legislature. They wanted. And wanted to make sure teaching about systemic racism in America was omitted. Lie after lie. I'm doing this because I remember when I first started learning about the slave trade in elementary school, I was ashamed. This is a shameful curriculum. I was ashamed of being black. I didn't think anything positive came out of Africa but slave labor. And my elementary school teacher, even though it wasn't a part of the curriculum, my elementary school teacher infused African contributions as he was talking about the slave trade, and it made a difference in my life then, and it's making a difference in my life now, and that is why I am an educational act and created the King's Classroom. Because Dr. King says a racist system gives white Americans a false sense of superiority, and it gives black Americans a false sense of inferiority. Because of the lies, generation after generation, America, not just black America, all Americans have been miseducated about the real truth of American history. Now, this is the current state of affairs.

SPEAKER_02 9:06

This is not created by black Africans, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_03 9:09

Was it who created it? People who are white. 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, 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.

SPEAKER_04 9:42

Uh that's a fact. That is a fact. So the greatest genius came to the building of the pyramids, which you know what those are white people, by the way. The uh Egyptians are not African.

SPEAKER_01 9:57

I'm sorry. Do you know where Egypt is? Yes, it's absorbed 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. Then 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_04 11:08

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. And 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 brutalized, 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 there's still those people today, even though you have a president, they're still those same people. And you're still the way you are. I mean, a good example actually is African Americans. I don't know if you could think of a people uh who were more held back, more deprived, more sabotaged than African Americans. It took everything away from them. It took them away from everything. They started in your country uh at less than zero, literally regarded and treated as subhuman. 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 fast 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. People like this, with a history like this, with a legacy like this, uh, simply cannot be held back for any length of time by a people who do not have a similar history, people who have have never actually invested uh in their own civilizational development.

SPEAKER_00 13:38

Cleopatra was not white. And it was hard for some America, some Americans to accept that, but it's based on history, it's based on facts. And those are one of the facts that our ancestors covered up. Social studies is one discipline that is routinely updated, updated depending on the needs of the parents and local communities. It's being done across this nation. In Denver, Colorado, middle school students and their teachers and their parents petitioned the Board of Education and demanded more African contributions, a more balanced curriculum in their public schools. And in 2021, social studies curriculums in all Denver public schools have been updated. The same entities that are trying to take or trying to erase American history or African contributions are the same entities that can add the truth. We know how it started. Dr. Naeem Akbar said miseducation was lucrative during the 19th century century, it was born of fear. But shame on Americans that uh that want to keep the power by erasing the true African history from the textbooks. It's not my history, it's not black history, it's American history. You know, we've lied for so long that both black and white Americans think that Greek and Roman developed outside of any contributions from Africa. That's a lie. I have a friend 50 years old, she just found out that Cleopatra was black. We don't do something now, history will repeat itself. That's why it's so urgent. As an educator, I heard one of my students say the same thing I felt 50 years ago. They said, Why did we have to be slaves? I I don't want to be uh black. I had the same sentiment because I did not know my true history. It wasn't until my elementary school teacher infused African contributions into the lesson plan that's when I realized and was able to answer the question why did Africans have to be slaves? And it was only when I made that connection from knowing my factual history. I made connections then, and I'm making connections now over five decades later. Listen, the life started in the classroom, and that's where we need to make those repairs. We need to teach the truth in the classroom. Our history is brutal, it's painful, good and bad, but it must be taught in a classroom, in an environment where the students can dialogue and ask questions about the new reality. We can fix this issue. This problem started with man and we can fix it, but we cannot do it with the same level of consciousness that created it. Ava DuVernay, she's a filmmaker and a producer, and she says, and I quote, when it comes to the system of racism, and I'm speaking specifically in the public schools, pressure has to be applied because this system is durable. It has withstand it for centuries and will continue to withstand until we are intentional. Where to start? Easy. When you support the King's classroom, we will answer the question who, what, when, why, how. Where to start? Start with the Kemet culture. Now Valley Civilization should be introduced in elementary school when we introduce our students to the Greek and the Roman culture. Where do we start? Focus on introducing our students to King Tut and his genius, the first black genius, and introduce our students to Queen Cleopatra and all of her contributions. Albert Einstein said, Let's not feed our babies the same lies we were fed.