Ordinary Not Obvious Conversations
On the way back from a long drive appointment in Milwaukee, the Apple Music playlist of Hezekiah Walker’s sounds, disrupted by news of the fatal shooting of a protester in Minneapolis, Minnesota. There was more rage, frustration, and disappointment during the Chicago Bears loss at Soldier Field stadium than the proactivity, frustration, and response from those around me.
While there is an uncertainty looming in the frostbite air of our negative degree weather, it’s ironic that there isn’t more conversation around the legacy of King’s sentiments that “All Things Are Interrelated.” In his famous A Letter From Birmingham Jail,” King writes,
Injustice must be rooted out by strong, persistent, and determined action.
How do you root out an administration that presents false narratives of real lives lost?
Teach your children how to recognize truths and differentiate reality from lies. In our U.S. History classroom last week, eleventeenth graders learned about the dissemination of propaganda in public schools during the Reconstruction Era (1865-1877). In an era where the byproducts of Civil War were not repentance and reassessments of America’s soul, entrenched with the labor and lacerations of forced labor, but rather a rebirth of prejudice and established lies. One of which was the “Lost Cause” myth. Motifs of patriotism to an agricultural South, benevolent and naturally submissive enslaved individuals, and the commemoration of deceased Confederate soldiers were just a few of the pillars that propelled the lost cause myth. In retrospect, it may be intuitive to recognize the inaccuracy of those historical narratives. However, those same false narratives were disseminated across public school textbooks. Some of these narratives included:
Secession was a necessary means to save the South.
Natural characteristics of African Americans were an inept and ignorant nature.
Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee were figures worthy to be commemorated.
Challenged by advocates such as W.E.B. Dubois and PBS Pinchback, the the Lost Cause myth still made its way into the textbooks of our 1st world countries' education systems. More than a century later, the banned books of the 21st century leave a familiar opportunity open for a devious agenda. So when you leave this post and pick your next dopamine scroll, what steps can we take in our households to document the truths of a developing history?
Crafted conversations in the comforts of our own home may not be the cure to an era of artificial intelligence and tapestries of televised manipulation. Yet, they take root in the minds of a generation that will be responsible for the seeds they did not plant. So while we’re snowed in on , I ask that you invite these conversations into your homes with your teenagers and engage their intellectual development. Moral reminders and moments of reflection are equally as important as meals placed on the table. When we can recognize, differentiate, and articulate the importance of the realities of injustice, we make more impact in our immediate surroundings than you know. If we can’t respond to the call of conversations and reflections of our society in our own homes, and separate fervent truths from fascist motives, we may as well redistribute the propaganda campaigns of the 19th century. The ordinary and mundane conversations are more important than you know. There’s a chance that uprooting injustice begins with recognizing the weeds and roots that exist within our own. That determined action is a deliberate pause to pray, talk, and sit with your family and friends around you.