We Can't Escape the Past

Source: National Geographic Society

Last week 18-year-old Payton Gendron drove 200 miles to Buffalo, New York to murder Black people. Ten people were killed, and three others were injured; 11 of the victims were Black.

“They died in a Tops Grocery Story,” writes Essau McCaulley, “because they were Black and wanted to buy food on a Saturday in America.” Gendron’s racist manifesto was informed by his understanding of history.

Seven years ago, Dylann Roof took the lives of nine African Americans inside a Charleston church—a murder spree that was inspired by his understanding of history.

Early yesterday morning a Confederate flag was discovered flying from a flagpole on the campus of La Plata High School in Maryland—a clear message rooted in the long history of white supremacy in America.

Today The Washington Post is reporting that students at Colerain High School in Cincinnati, Ohio labeled water fountains for “Whites only” and “Blacks only”—a sure sign that the students involved are learning from the past.

Meanwhile, in Palm City, Florida a photograph of students spelling out the N-word on campus has led to an investigation. Apparently, the students made their individual letters in art class.

In Georgia, Black students and their parents are suing a school after they were suspended for protesting the display of the Confederate flag on campus. The school just happens to be located in Marjorie Taylor Greene’s congressional district. Parents and students are alleging a longer pattern of racism on campus. One white student allegedly commented to a fellow Black student: “we used to whip you.” The history of slavery is alive and well at Coosa High School.

I could go on and on and on.

I’ll close this short post with a question posed by Essau McCaulley:

A question remains for those who still reside in this republic: What do we owe the deceased in Buffalo and all those who preceded them? It cannot be anything less than pursuing the truth and unveiling all the interconnected evils that led to their tragic end.

It’s a question that my fellow history educators specifically should spend some time reflecting on over the next few weeks as the school year begins to come to an end, but it is a question that anyone with a sense of justice and an ounce of empathy must also face.