Our Generation's Moon Shot: A Proposed Path Forward for Improved Racial Understanding
UPDATED: 2/5/2023
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Let’s start with a thought experiment. What if tomorrow morning all of white America woke up, climbed out of bed, and found themselves with new knowledge on a host of race-related matters already embedded in their brains. They would wake up with an understanding of the holistic black experience throughout American history and straight up to the present as told through historic events, literature, various forms of art, and first-person narratives.
(In this thought experiment, we’re ignoring COVID-19 for the moment.) What would that look like as each of these average white Americas left home and showed up in the work place as colleagues, managers, and leaders to a diverse workforce? What would that look like for those who spend the day in front of the youngest minds as their classroom teachers? What would public interactions look like? How would friendships vary? What dialogue could enter the public sphere that is today either ignored or awkwardly discussed?
the current state of white america
There are white Americans who are at various places on the trajectory towards learning to be better. They are trying to figure out how to fill in the gaps in their knowledge. Book lists are circulating, podcasts are being recommended, and while it is not their job to educate others, some black Americans are sharing their experiences to help enlighten their white brethren. Some white Americans are taking action through protests and calls for reform to improve societal problems. Some are donating money to organizations that have been working on these very problems for decades.
I feel relatively optimistic about this group of white Americans, though I fear that they will lose momentum with their haphazard approach and become frustrated by the lack of noticeable change or progress. We are quick to get bored as Americans. For the most part, this part of white America appears to be flailing for options, but they have commitment going for them.
There are other white Americans who do not realize there is a problem at all. I am taking a broad-brush approach here to represent a wide continuum, recognizing individuals fall on this spectrum with far more nuanced perspectives. These white Americans may be actively racist, inactively racist, or agnostic to the whole affair. None of this concerns them on a day-to-day basis. Their lack of willingness to learn, grow, and change is a big hurdle. I count plenty of my friends and family in this category, and this population concerns me because I don’t know how we move forward as a country without them engaging differently.
the value of education
Discussion of public education goes back as far as the origins of this country because a free, Democratic society requires a certain level of education among its citizenry. All citizens and the country overall benefit from a foundation of knowledge from which we become contributing adults. As a country, we have generally decided that this foundation ends around age 18 when students graduate from high school. Everything we think Americans need to know must be wrapped up by that grade. From there, everyone is on their own to continue to grow and learn according to their ability, financial status, and interest. The average American will live 60 more years left to their own devices.
As part of my Political Science major in college, I took an elective course on the Civil Rights Movement, taught by a black professor who had personally been involved in the movement and who had known many of the figures we learned about in the course. I learned about groups I had never heard of before, such as the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Why didn’t I learn any of this in my K-12 education? Was learning about the Boston Tea Party five different times over the years truly a better use of time?
My Virginia education on the Civil War left me with a solid understanding that the real cause of the Civil War was the debate over state and federal rights with slavery playing a secondary role at best. There was nothing in the curriculum that humanized the enslaved populations. Zero part of my brain connected the small number of black students in my affluent high school to this history, in reality only a few generations back. In that same class that same year, we also did a family genealogy project where each student had to research his or her own family history and create a family tree. I was proud of my history and was able to leverage genealogy work already conducted by some of my older family members. My history on both sides could be traced back as far as the 1700s. I felt a little awkward for the handful of kids in the class who were adopted. It never crossed my mind the issues this may have raised for many black classmates, whose own histories have often been erased and family relationships torn asunder.
Because I went to high school in Charlottesville, Virginia, Thomas Jefferson’s hometown, he was a topic of constant conversation. There was contemporary debate about his offspring with Sally Hemings. At the time, it was popular to blame other male relatives of Jefferson’s as convenient scapegoats for the DNA matches. In 2000, the year I graduated from high school, a miniseries aired on TV called ‘Sally Hemings: An American Scandal’. As a teenager, I watched with rapt attention this ‘love story’ between the 14-year old Hemings and 44-year old Jefferson. It is an understatement to say that this portrayal is not one that would stand up to the test of time.
The point of sharing these experiences of is to illustrate two points: how I left my K-12 education with a lack of knowledge and understanding of the experiences of black Americans throughout history, a state worse than ignorant; and how in the twenty years since then, there is more information and understanding of the past than ever before but how remote that is to the average adult. Both of these impact my ability to fully serve as the member of society I should be.
Through personal reflection and in seeking new perspectives, I have sought to become less ignorant. In spite of actively seeking out black American authors, it probably is not a stretch to say I have read more novels by Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters than by black authors combined. As far as I still have to go, I can tell the impact my self-education has already had and how it helps me continue to evolve.
I was incredibly moved by Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me, written as a letter to his son. This memoir paints a picture of multiple generations of a black household and how the outside racism - personal and institutional - impacts their day-to-day life and decisions on raising a child. Novels such as Sula by Toni Morrison, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, and Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward have all introduced me to a part of America that I have not experienced myself. The autobiographical Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup is enough to make anyone cry. While there are other books that have made an impact on me, my point is that simply being exposed to new knowledge - whether fiction or non-fiction or even other formats - has the power to educate and change people. I did not know what redlining was until I read Coates’ 2014 article in The Atlantic on “The Case for Reparations”.
the proposal to shift course
As a country, how do we address these gaps in education in a way that is as rapid as possible, includes as many people as possible, and makes the broadest impact? Without such a broad shift across this country, the unknowingly-ignorant (this is where I count myself) and willfully-ignorant will not change their stripes. We have to do something new, innovative, and on a large scale. This is imperative to live up to the American dream of Democracy, to come closer to realizing real equality, and - if neither of those move you - to include the best and brightest voices so that the US can continue to compete in the world economy.
Formal education does not need to end at the age of 18. Heck, brains aren’t even fully developed at that age.
While the details would need to be developed by myriad voices and expertise different than mine, here is the general framework for a path forward.
Through the government or a public/private partnership, a curriculum could be created that for purposes of this post, I will call semi-tongue-in-cheek “Relearning American History: Remedial Courses”.
American adults would be offered this curriculum free-of-charge, would be encouraged to take the courses, and would receive some sort of diploma or certification upon completion. There could be several levels of “degrees” so that those interested and willing could go beyond the first level of curriculum to more advanced or varied coursework.
The first level of curriculum, which would be encouraged for all, would need to include important foundational elements. This would serve the same purpose that K-12 education does: a consistent understanding of a topic. Graduates of this diploma would understand the concepts of institutional racism, for example, and would be better able to identify its modern-day applications and impacts. The courses would be developed by professors and others with a strong expertise on a topic. Courses could include reading and discussing first person accounts by black Americans throughout history, learning about all the parts of history that have not been taught conventionally, reading and discussing novels by black Americans, and analyzing the portrayal of black Americans in the movies. The list could go on and the full breadth of topics are way beyond my own knowledge, but these are meant to serve as examples.
The other impact of this approach is that people would learn to discuss topics that are uncomfortable. Being able to discuss these topics would be the very first step towards solving the societal challenges. It will also require people to confront different experiences of other Americans, something that many people choose to ignore and are allowed to continue to ignore.
What would incentivize people to do this? As a country, we already acknowledge many degrees and certifications. Some employers have their own internal certifications as well. We are also in an age of social media where there is ample opportunity to highlight degrees and certifications attained. So, one piece could be peer pressure (the good kind) and societal accountability. Another option is that employers, for example, could begin requiring this of employees; perhaps to become a manager or supervisor, someone needs to have obtained the foundational curriculum. Wouldn’t it make sense for a socially-aware company to want to emphasize the importance of management understanding the basic background and experience of many employees? Wouldn’t it make sense that managers would want to indicate to potential hires or employees that they have put work into improving themselves in this arena? There are of course other incentives that could be considered.
Since the goal would be for this to be free and universally available, funding would be needed. As we all know, this country never has difficulty finding funds for anything deemed essential.
We have never been at a better moment in time for this. There are technology platforms (such as Coursera and Udemy) that already exist and could be leveraged. The ubiquity of cell phones and computers puts access points in the hands of more people than ever (though not everyone). Our society is at a crossroads of division and finding a path forward with greater empathy, knowledge, and understanding has never been more important. We also are mere decades away from the US becoming a majority minority country (meaning that the white population will be less than half of the country) so finding a productive way to move forward is imperative.
While I have purposefully focused this post on the experience of black Americans. This concept could be broadened to address other populations whose voices are often ignored: Native Americans, Americans with disabilities, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, LGBTQ Americans, and others. Generally as the world moves faster and faster, doesn’t it also seem high time to recognize that in the 60 years between high school graduation and age 76, when the average American dies, that we need a mechanism to continue updating the general education of our population?
When the statement “Black Lives Matter” is contentious because so many people literally do not understand the systemic and institutional legacies in this country, we need to start with educating society, continue with dialogue, and, of course, implement reforms. If this were easy, it would have been solved a long time ago. We have to start somewhere.
discussion and request
We would love to hear your own personal experiences and/or reactions to this proposal in our comments section below.
And if you find this idea at all intriguing, please share it on your social media platform of choice to spread the idea!
why we posted about this topic
For those questioning the relevance of this post on our blog, we do not feel a particular need to explain ourselves but will provide a brief perspective. As our tagline says, this is “a blog about travel, life, and the pursuit of the unknown.” An understanding of history is an important aspect to our travels so that we can be informed, and we are always on the hunt to expand our knowledge and understanding of the world at-large. We absolutely must start in our own backyard: the US. We have always taken the approach in our travels to write about how historic sites with dark pasts tackle these issues. And as our blog name itself states, our goal is “To Make Much of Time,” which means we intend to use our time on this planet and our blog platform to make whatever small amount of impact we can.
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