If you’re pressed for time, jump to the last paragraph and visit that link to listen to a moving “lesson from the not-so-distant past.”
A few years ago my son, a history, civics, social studies, and philosophy teacher in middle school, had a meeting with the parents of a boy who was failing The parents stated they didn’t care if he failed or not because history wasn’t required! Such a situation brings up many concerns, but first and foremost: WHY isn’t history required?
We know that understanding the past helps us to understand the present and shape the future not to mention the myriad other topics that history enriches for us, such as understanding our own culture and ourselves; understanding others and having a greater appreciation for so many aspects of the world we live in.
In terms of black history, one aspect of understanding the present includes knowing that blacks were the ONLY “immigrants” to this country that were originally kidnapped from their own (as we now know from studying history) sophisticated cultures and forced here under subhuman conditions. While there were others brought to work here and treated poorly, they were not slaves. There is a BIG difference.
One of the serious issues of today is police brutality. First, let me be clear as I have a nephew who is a white police officer in Durham, NC. He is compassionate, effective, and thoughtful in his actions and interaction with the community. Most police officers are similar. But there are exceptions and there are some internal police cultures that breed an acceptance of racial brutality.
According to a 2019 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences, over the course of a lifetime, black men face a one in 1,000 risk of being killed during an encounter with police, a rate much higher than that of white men. That means that black males (whether boys or men) face the highest risk of being killed by police–at a rate of 96 out of 100,000 deaths. White males face a lower rate of 39 per 100,000 deaths, despite being a bigger portion of the U.S. population. It helps to note that this has nothing to do with the correlation with violent crime. Its easy to say: well, black males commit more crimes, but that doesn’t happen to be true. According to the FBI, 241,063 whites (males and females) compared to 153,341 blacks (men and women) were arrested for violent crimes. [These numbers are for 2016 from https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2016/crime-in-the-u.s.-2016/topic-pages/tables/table-21]
Listen to “The Seven Last Words of the Unarmed” composed by Joel Thompson and sung by the University of Michigan’s multiracial Men’s Glee Club, directed by Eugene Rogers. Each movement is based on the words of seven unarmed black men shot by police.
The song’s seven movements represent the last words of seven different men:
“Why do you have your guns out?” – Kenneth Chamberlain, 66
“What are you following me for?” – Trayvon Martin, 16
“Mom, I’m going to college.” – Amadou Diallo, 23
“I don’t have a gun. Stop shooting.” – Michael Brown, 18
“You shot me! You shot me!” – Oscar Grant, 22
“It’s not real.” – John Crawford, 22
“I can’t breathe.” – Eric Garner, 43
Each movement is distinctly different, borrowing influences from musical theater, Bach, Brahms, and even aleatoric music—a style of music where an element of the composition is left to the spontaneity of the performers, which can be heard as students repeat Oscar Grant’s last words “You shot me! You shot me!” in Movement V. [Quoted from: news.umich.edu/social-justice-music-seven-last-words-of-the-unarmed-premieres-at-u-m] There’s a wonderful short video clip of interviews with the composer, choral director, and members of the Glee Club, as well as their singing at this site.
To hear the entire work, go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdNXoqNuLRQ
University of Michigan Men’s Glee Club