Happy February!
February is traditionally Black History Month in the United States, and while naming specific months to focus on the history of discrete populations is wrought with conflict, I feel like we benefit as a whole from recognizing that we (humans) have constructed race as well as other identities and examining that construction can increase understanding. I saw a meme recently that gave me pause. It said, "Why is slavery taught as the history of African Americans and not the history of the United States?" This has stuck with me, and I have to be honest I do not know how this piece of U.S. history is taught in our schools presently, but I know that it is often presented as something that was experienced by a large percentage of Black people in the U.S. and therefore a part of "their history." I feel like the Civil Rights Movement was also presented to me as part of a history that is not owned by all of the United States but only certain parts, such as the Deep South, Black/African American people, activists and advocates, or anti-racists of the time.
This really rubs me wrong and in my opinion just gives people, specifically people who identify as White, an out to not have to think about it or take some measure of responsibility towards making reparations. For me, this is one of the privileges of being a member of a dominant identity. I do not have to identify with the White people who owned others and enslaved them, or who enforced segregation in contemporary times, nor does anyone assume that my ancestors were abolitionists or suffragettes or any people who are historically painted as heroes on the "right" side of any issue of justice.
All this to say I think I am still struggling at times with my own identity as well as the ascribed identities that our society has constructed based on assumptions of appearance and/or behavior. We only truly know that which someone allows us to know about them, including their identity and how much of themselves they share. I am pleased to have gotten to know a local leader who has gifted me with learning more about him and he is generously sharing his wisdom with the Mandel School. On Wednesday, Feb. 12, Reverend Benjamin Gohlstin will be speaking about the importance of history and our ability to learn from it. He cites the Sankofa Bird as the metaphor that encourages him to seek learning from the past and moving forward with an eye to what and whom have gone before us.
This is a scary time for many among us. The ground is shifting rapidly and the celebration of human diversity that I so joyfully engage with is suddenly unwelcome in some settings. Just as my experience shapes who I become and does not define who I am, history can shape who we are as a community but should never be the complete definition or example of who we are. I stay vigilant for the cognitive distortions that can lead me to overgeneralize about myself and others.
If you have an experience or a suggestion/need, please look for the suggestion box in the hallway outside of the far door of Suite 140, and share it with your school. We strive to do better and create a place of learning and belonging. I remain steadfast in my call to witness injustice, fight for equity and extoll the values of the incredible breadth of humanity we experience at the Mandel School and beyond.
To paraphrase Walt Whitman, "we contain multitudes."