Why We Need Black History Classes

The attacks on black history have been interesting, although generally fallacious, such as by using Critical Race Theory as the target. However, there are some issues that are being apparently ignored in the debate. However, there are some good reasons to allow students access to the history of other groups, and we're going to look at some.

[These points can be applied to just about every group. People need to remember that no one group has a complete monopoly on contributing to history; even in periods when one group was getting all of the news, others contributed to history. Of course, people also need to remember that Europe and North America were not the only places where history was happening. History can be very complicated, and it can get all sorts of weird when you actually look at it.]

History instruction shouldn't be comfortable. 

One such issue is that white students would be uncomfortable with the sins of their ancestors; if you're not taught about the mistakes of the past, how do you learn from them? And trust me: There are plenty of sins to go around. This is just an excuse to teach propaganda. We need to recognize that privilege and racism are unfortunately a part of our history and that needs to be allowed for in our history instruction.

The mistakes of the past need to be taught, and minority history generally shows those mistakes more effectively than general history classes.

Everyone needs a hero who represents them. 

While it's true that no hero should belong to any one group, it's just as true that everyone should have a hero who resembles them. Consider Harriet Tubman; her stubbornness and ability to adapt inspire everyone, and she's an impressive person no matter her sex or color. She's rightly a hero who should inspire everyone. However, that doesn't mean that she shouldn't be considered a black hero or even a [gulp] heroine; our heroes should not be all white men.

Representation will always matter, especially in history.

The history needs to be shared. 

One of the problems with general history classes is that they tend to look at the broad strokes rather than the finer ones. This means that while minority groups get some attention, they only get noticed when they interact with so-called "mainstream" culture; this means that there is a lot of history skipped over for the sake of brevity. An obvious example is that of the indigenous peoples; a lot of the culture, history, and even mythology are given short thrift. The struggles of Chinese immigrants are also pretty much glanced over while black and Latino cultures are only given the broadest strokes. Even the history of women is only generally given in terms of how they affect the general flow of history.

With that in mind, classes that focus on one group help fill in the gaps of knowledge, ensuring that those cultures have a more thorough history.

It helps deal with bad history. 

When people don't have their own history, tall tales, and urban legends take their place. This means that they will believe stories that a little research would quickly debunk. This means that you get things like people who believe that "cowboys" come from a reference to black men, even though ranching in the US was developed by Latinos and blacks weren't even a major part of ranching until after the Civil War. This also ensures that some incidents gain far more power than they should; the Tuskegee Airmen incident is a reason for blacks to avoid medical treatment even today rather than a cautionary tale.

With specific instruction in their history, groups depend less on "bad history" to fill in the gaps in their history, providing a more accurate picture of their history.

It helps to emphasize the melting pot that is the United States. 

To go by some historians, the history of the US is pretty homogenous, with most of the major players being white, male, and straight. While that's because society favored white straight males, that doesn't mean that there was a shortage of minorities and women doing good (and bad) things. The US is a nation of immigrants, with each group having its own effect on the culture as a whole. By looking at the history of groups outside of the mainstream, we are able to get a better grasp on just how each group has influenced history as a whole.

General history classes don't allow us to see the full effects of immigrants on American history.

We need minority history classes. 

In short, we need classes that focus on specific groups. While the general classes are good enough for general education, they lack a lot of specific details. By the same token, attacks on subject material based on the comfort factor of the students should not be countenanced. We need to improve our historical education, not neuter it, and allowing viewpoints we may not appreciate is the best way to do that.