A new wave of book-banning, a push to censor the teaching of Black history and race, and even attempts to revise the African-American legacy all threaten to alter perceptions about history. It seems like a frightening throwback to the harshest of days in the Black experience as far as education is concerned.
But nearly a quarter into the 21st century, technology and social media are providing alternative sources of knowledge so that Black history remains unaltered and accessible to all.
The book-banning trend and attendant crackdown on what is taught in schools — particularly public schools — are part of an active Conservative-led movement in America’s culture wars.
In Texas, for example, residents sued a library after a library official took books off the shelves based on a list from an elected official, noted journalist Alexandra Alter, who covered the publishing industry for the New York Times.
“They weren’t all children’s books; the list included Ta-Nehisi Coates’ award-winning ‘Between the World and Me’ and ‘How to Be an Antiracist’ by Ibram X. Kendi,’ ” a best-seller in the U.S., said Alter, noting that, “For some parents, it’s about preventing kids from reading certain things. Others want to introduce certain topics — like LGBT rights or race — to their children themselves.”
Even school librarians “have been thrown into the forefront of the cultural wars,” according to Jeffery Fleishman’s L.A. Times’ article. “School librarians vilified as the ‘arm of Satan in book-banning wars,” which says the workers nationwide are being pressured and harassed for refusing to ban books with inclusive themes.
The pushback against Critical Race Theory (CRT) is also part of the attempt to censor the teaching of Black history and race. CRT suggests that racism is part of a broader pattern in America, and that it’s a systemic problem, not only a matter of individual bigotry. Opponents reinterpreting CRT have turned it into a lightning rod to change how history, race and inequality are taught.
Last month, the Florida Department of Education rejected a new Advanced Placement course on African American studies, saying it violated state law and “significantly lacks educational value,” without detailing the state’s legal objections or what was inaccurate about the course. The College Board, which created the African American AP course, said the curriculum covers a wide range of subjects — from literature and arts to science and geography — and has been worked on for more than 10 years.
In 2022, Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a CRT opponent, signed into law the so-called Stop WOKE Act, which governs how race can be discussed in the state’s workplace and schools.
In addition to banning books and forbidding CRT, as Florida’ has done, there have been attempts to rewrite Black history. Some are laughable, like the debunking of slavery with claims that “the first African workers were given rides to the Americas in exchange for their labor. The people that they worked for treated them like family and they were very happy.”
Enter social media. Among its numerous functions, social media has become an easily accessible alternative source of information about race, Black history, and other “banned” topics. And the information available on TikTok, Facebook and Instagram is diverse.
Take TikToker @chantemonique1’s highly detailed and pictorial 3:37 minute post on slavery — a major rebuttal to slavery skeptics anywhere.
Then there’s comedian Amber Ruffin, who intersperses facts about Black history with fun facts about her late-night shows that are excerpted on TikTok. A serious fact presented is the 1968 shooting at South Carolina State University that killed three and wounded 28. One of the most violent events of the Civil Rights Movement, the Orangeburg Massacre in 1968, remains one of the least known chapters of history.
Vanessa K. Valdés, associate provost for community engagement at The City College of New York, and author of “Diasporic Blackness: The Life and Times of Arturo Alfonso Schomburg,” hailed social media’s “tremendous role in the expansion of Black history over the last decade.”
“We are witnessing a democratization of knowledge, which goes back to the initial appeal of social media,” said Valdés. “We know of the dangers of social media — yet we also know the development of communities of support have happened and continue to happen there. In this way, social media is a reflection of humanity itself: it is a tool that is dependent upon our use of it.”
She noted that as a specialist in Afro-Latin American and Afro-Latinx studies, she has witnessed how interest in these areas of study has grown. “Histories of the African diaspora outside of the United States are often not taught, even within Black Studies departments. And this critical information about global Black populations — including Black peoples throughout this hemisphere — is now being shared outside of a college audience to adults and young people alike,” she said.
Yet amidst this, the cardinal questions remain. How does one determine whether the information provided is factually correct, and are reputable sources being used to learn the history?
“On the face of it, one may not be able to determine if any information presented on the internet is accurate, which is why it’s important to continue looking into the facts presented. Hopefully the information presented inspires that kind of curiosity,” said Valdés.
“Now, a one-minute Tik Tok video hopefully isn’t all someone sees — hopefully viewers are inspired to learn more, be it on YouTube and other sources. Still, I am inspired by the spread of knowledge: we know learning is a continual pursuit, not only something that happens in the classroom. In ‘The Negro Digs Up His Past,’ Arturo Schomburg wrote: ‘the American Negro must remake his past in order to make his future.’ [And] this is Sankofa, from the Akan peoples of Ghana: we must know where we have been in order to know where we are going. Social media is assisting with this.”
