There are ways to enact sensitive areas within America’s history without being disrespectful those treaty unfairly and inhumane because of the color of their skin.
One Atlanta Charter school was previously in the news for a Black History play gone wrong.
The Kindezi Schools Old 4th Ward campus held a Black History play with second graders using blackface masks to reflect a Paul Laurence Dunbar poem. The usage of blackface in schools is something that has come up consistently through the last eight years.
Just recently a blackface incident occurred in Miami.
There was a recent incident in Michigan at a high school. It’s not limited to just k-12 but even our colleges are experiencing incidents.
We have a problem with unarmed Black males being shot anywhere by police because they “fit a profile!”
We also have a problem with blackface incidents happening in schools. What message does this send to Black children?
You would think that due to current racial tensions in America that we reverted back to the 50’s and 60’s.
Now, stories once shared by grandparents are slowing becoming our children’s reality.
After the recent H&M ad and Dove commercial we would think that companies and organizations such as schools would be more culturally sensitive to things regarding race.
However, it leaves me to ask, Is blackface still a mistake in 2018?
Jason has worked in education for over 15 years as a teacher, blogger and community advocate. He speaks and writes primarily about the need to improve education for Black boys, particularly increasing the number of Black male educators in schools. In addition to blogging here at EdLanta, Jason is also a featured writer at Education Post.