What a 13-yr-old can teach AZ lawmakers about history

From my latest post at Change.org:

Last year, my nephew lamented to his grandmother that we (the descendants of enslaved Africans) were "from nowhere." "It kind of makes me want to cry," he added. He was age 13 at the time.

That he would feel this way made me want to cry. How did this black child, a student in an excellent school system; grandchild of two educators; great-great-great-grandchild of a man who — less than 20 years after his emancipation had taught himself to read and purchased land that remains in the family to this day — this boy with an aunt who spends time writing about race for places like Change.org: How could he come by such beliefs? And yet he truly believed that African-American people have no history, and that we've made no contributions to this country. If he could think this, I can only wonder what the other students in his mostly-white school think as well. Read more...