The History I Was Never Taught
For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Michael Shoemaker – or Mr. Shoe, as my students call me. For the past three years, I’ve taught High School Social Studies & History here at Ocracoke School. I strive to openly and honestly communicate the good and the bad of history to my students, particularly in American History… but to do so has required an immense amount of additional work, research, and learning on my part… It was not until I began my teaching career five years ago in Memphis, TN that I realized just how ill-equipped I had been and how thoroughly white-washed the history I was taught had been.
Having grown up in a small, conservative town in rural Ohio, I had never been forced to acknowledge or understand my whiteness or the privilege that came with it. In my home and school, I was taught to be “color blind” because all people are equal… but this disregarded centuries of systemic oppression. I was ignorant of the generational traumas of Black history. I was never taught the full extent of slavery’s horrific brutality; I was never taught that the 13th Amendment still allows slavery as a punishment for crime or that Black men were arrested en masse after its ratification; I was never taught the post-Civil War government abandoned freed men and women as soon as the protection of their rights became politically inconvenient; I was never taught that black workers were excluded from countless labor unions during the Gilded Age; I was never taught about the Red Summer of 1919 or the Burning of Black Wall Street; I was never taught the policies of red-lining that prevented Black families from owning property and trapped many in generational poverty; I was never taught that the FBI, through a program called COINTELPRO, sought to harass and discredit Civil Rights Leaders to prevent the rise of a “Black Messiah”; I was never taught that the Black Panther Party created free breakfast programs for children and community clinics, only that they carried guns; I was never taught that young Black men were disproportionately drafted to fight and die in Vietnam; I was never taught that the one of central aims of the Wars on Crime and Drugs was to disrupt black communities; I was never taught about the Rodney King Riots, despite being born mere weeks after their conclusion; I was not taught about the system of mass incarceration that disproportionately targets Black people; I was not taught that racism is more than a personal prejudice, it is a fundamental part of our institutions and policies which places disadvantages and additional hurdles in the paths of Black Americans… and while White Americans are not immune to struggle and hardship, the color of our skin has never been the source of our hardship.
I was not taught these things when I was young, but I have learned them… and it is my responsibility and moral obligation to ensure that my students receive a better education than I did. Education cannot bring back George Floyd… or Breonna Taylor… or Rayshard Brooks… or Michael Brown… or Philando Castille… or Sandra Bland… or Freddie Gray… or Tamir Rice… or any of the countless souls taken from us by a racist system… Education cannot mend broken hearts or soothe our rage at injustice… but perhaps it can help us to create a better future. A future in which our Black brothers and sisters no longer need to fear the institutions sworn to protect them and in which justice is upheld regardless of skin color, culture, or personal beliefs… This is a future that we can create… and it is a future for which we must never stop fighting.
We are here today to add our voices to the ongoing chorus against racism and police brutality… an enemy that reared its ugly head when Derek Chauvin placed his knee on George Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds… To honor and remember George Floyd and every life stolen by police brutality, I ask you to join me in 8 minutes and 46 seconds of silence.
[8 minutes & 46 seconds of silence]
This fight is not new… it has been raging for 400 years, since the first Black slaves were brought to Jamestown in 1619… This fight will not end when we leave here today… Fight with your mind, with your heart, with your voice, with your money, with your vote. We cannot allow the present movement to be nothing more than a social media trend… We must keep fighting for change and for justice until it is won. The system of racism and brutality that killed George Floyd will not change on its own accord. We must change it.
Black Lives Matter!
