Something to think about - Out to DeBunk the Bunk”: Antiracist Teaching in the 1940s and Today

This is an excerpt from an article in TC Record - It is not related to any of our current topics - but it is really good food for thought for all of us in Education.

Today, teachers face the daunting task of reviving antiracist education for the twenty-first century. Like Alice Nirenberg, the teacher quoted at the beginning of this essay, teachers must seize hold of scientific knowledge on race and culture and make it their own. It is teachers, after all, who possess the specialized knowledge and training to translate complicated materials on race for young students. Ms. Nirenberg, for example, set anthropological facts on human race to the most popular song of 1943, a western swing song called “Pistol Packin’ Mama.” On a cold morning in December, her students lined up on stage and sang out:
Any one can notice
The color of a race
It’s easily detected
By looking at a face.
No matter if you happen to
Be white or brown or yellow,
Chemically your skin’s the same
As any other fellow—
So…
Lay that Pistol down, Babe
Lay that pistol down
Pistol packin’ mama
Lay that pistol down.
Whether or not this song conveyed the depth of anthropological knowledge on racial equality, the important thing is that it represented an ingenious approach to teaching racial equality in the classroom. As Ms. Nirenberg discovered, it is impossible to recognize the biological equality of human beings without considering the social inequality of so-called racial minorities in America. It is the process of inquiry and discovery that we need to revitalize if we are ever going to encourage a new generation of Americans to “DeBunk the Bunk.”

Out to DeBunk the Bunk”: Antiracist Teaching in the 1940s and Today
http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentID=14552