Today I read to a second grade class about a black boy who experienced being at a bus terminal
In the south that had a whites only and colored only water fountains. The black boy drank the water out of the colored fountain and it tasted terrible. The white boy next to him drank out of the whites only fountain. He started fantasying that the whites fountain water was better tasting. He tricked his grandmother and took the bus a few days later to try to drink from that white fountain. He finally drank from the white fountain and the water was also terrible tasting. At the end he noticed the pipes were connected and the water was the same. As I was reading this I thought The right wingers heads would explode hearing this story and ban the book. More than half the class were white students, 1 Black child, 1 Hispanic and the rest Asian. They really enjoyed the story and I didn’t think any of them felt guilty. They were not upset but curious why they had two water fountains. We had a nice discussion. Then I read them a book about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad. I took great delight that I educated my students about our country’s history and none of the white children were upset or ashamed but enlightened instead.
That is why the right wing hates discussing history like slavery and segregation. They are the ones feeling guilt not those of us who know that those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat the past.
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