Please sign the petition below to push the reform of the way history is taught in American schools.

This petition is a call to action for teachers and the American education system. Police brutality and other racist atrocities still happening years after the civil rights movement are evidence that our country has failed to properly educate its people on the subject of racism. The May 2020 protests have urged many non-black citizens to admit that they avoid speaking about racism because they don’t know how to approach the topic. They also admitted to being misinformed and poorly taught about racism in their early education. We know that the American education system has been bleeding for a long time, but this can not go on any longer. 

In an excerpt from “Born A Crime” by Trevor Noah he states:

In Germany, no child finishes high school without learning about the Holocaust. Not just the facts of it but the how and the why and the gravity of it -- what it means. As a result, Germans grow up appropriately aware and apologetic. … In America, the history of racism is taught like this: “There was slavery and then there was Jim Crow and then there was Martin Luther King Jr. and now it’s done.” … Facts, but not many, and never the emotional or moral dimension. (Page 183)

The methods Germany uses to attach shame to the deplorable acts of the holocaust, is what we should use as our model. In addition to the facts, the emotional and moral implications of racism must be discussed. Instead of just learning the terms Underground Railroad and Jim Crow Laws, and the names of Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglas, schools should be explaining how dehumanizing it was to live in the Jim Crow era as a black person. The fear of waking up to the sight of black lifeless bodies dangling from trees is a feeling that has transcended through generations. America should learn to attach deep shame and anger to such historical events instead of glossing over them in a purely factual manner.

Our ultimate goal is to have each State restructure teaching standards, curriculums, and training programs into a new and improved way of addressing the history of racism in America. While the States curate this needed change, we encourage everyone especially teachers to follow our platform, Educated Against Racism. Educated Against Racism will be a social media page built to better equip educators in the way they teach history courses and the like. Teachers will have access to a plethora of resources such as books, documentaries, and learning materials, to help them navigate this uncomfortable yet necessary conversation. Once teachers are better informed they can return to the classroom and provide accurate and empathetic lessons on the history of racism in America. “We didn’t know” is no longer a valid excuse.

As the program is being built we hope teachers who sign this petition take it as a pledge to spend Summer 2020 learning about racism and how they can be allies to the oppressed. Teachers who take this pledge are encouraged to follow our instagram page @educated_against_racism. There we will be providing support over the summer through books, educational videos, and speaking engagements. 

Thank you for being at the front lines of the fight against racism. We dream of a future where how close our ancestors were born to the equator, does not determine whether we are worthy of life and death.