Unboxed and unbothered
Over the last three weeks I have engaged with teaching my students about the Civil Rights Movement. Being that this was such a tumultuous time in history, this is a period packed with raw emotion so much so that this era parallels with some of the same topics of today from voting rights to police brutality.
Another topic associated with this period that always causes me to pause is school segregation and Brown v. Board of Education decision. In the 1950s this case made it all the way to the SCOTUS in which school segregation was struck down based upon evidence proven by a Doll Test. What this test demonstrated is that segregation caused Black children to not feel good about themselves which caused low self-esteem, psychological damage and created an inferiority complex that could infringe on their ability to learn when kept separate from white children (let that sink in…that’s a lot to digest).
IMO, the Doll Test being used as a segue to integration was a misstep on so many levels. What this test denoted was an agreement for those Black kids to lose their own identity and be subjected to the ways and means of the dominant culture. In other words, “come with us only we can save you”, and in the process while you are being saved forget everything that you have been taught for “our way is best.” Sad thing is even today kids are still socialized to believe in this false narrative of “white is right” syndrome.
Some years ago, Anderson Cooper did a reenactment of the Doll Test with modern day school age kids, ranging in ages from 4-5 and 9–10. What was discovered even though circumstances are different and most schools are integrated, is that a great number of students still gravitate to the darker skin dolls as being “less than” and or the bad actors and the whiter complexion dolls as being “better than” and or the good actors. The most disheartening thing to watch was children of other ethnicities, from a similar Doll Test veering towards the same concept that Black and Brown dolls were bad. In addition, almost unanimous across the board the fairer skin dolls were chosen as the winner in the eyes of the kids and always as “the beautiful ones.”
Recently a student in class shared his experience of being raised and educated in the suburbs. His parents moved there because that district provided a better education and was high achieving. Because English was not his first language, he was placed in mostly Spanish speaking classes until his English-speaking skills were deemed acceptable to congregate with the masses. What he relayed to the class was this encounter caused him to feel less accepted and also sparked a deep desperation and desire to “fit in” all the more. The other thing he mentioned was that he felt the only way to feel accepted was to embrace “whiteness” even down to his class exercise of mock voting where students got to choose their presidential candidate Barak Obama or Mitt Romney in which he chose Romney. Later he discussed the class exercise with his mom who questioned his candidate selection, here he justified his decision by saying that he had never seen a Black person in a position of power and chose to select what he had always known to be “right” which was to lean on the side of whiteness.
All too often it is expected that conformity is the way, the truth, and the light. We are often taught in this society that we are not multi-layered and that we must pick a side. Truth be told I don’t think most of us are monolithic, it is a known fact that one size does not fit all or even most. There are times where even I struggle with this one, a black woman, raised by parents from the civil rights era, raised in a small predominately white town, Vero Beach Florida, with interest that lie in being deeply passionate about teaching true uncensored history and is sidebar obsessed with fashion, style, culture and hip hop. So, with all of that being said how do I pick a side? These are all things that have shaped my experience in one way or another and each one has a story of its own but by chance they make me who I am a living breathing human making her way through this universe.
And while I know there are a lot of people dog-earing copies of the books How to be Anti-Racist, The Caste System and White Fragility…yes this is all good. Yet another space to examine is to dismantle placing people in a box. We must create those spaces that allow folks, little people included to tap into each and every fiber that allow them to be exactly who they are and who they were meant to be. Let’s stop placing people in a box for ego sake so that we can feel comfortable around them. We must be ok with people as they are, and we have to stop this ridiculousness that one flavor is adaptable for all. “F” this imaginary box! Brown v. Board is evidence enough that it was only the illusion of inclusion, it didn’t work then, and it certainly is not working now!
