Happy Juneteenth, but who are the good, real Americans?

There once was a social experiment using kids and dolls. Children were asked, “Which doll is the good doll? Which doll is bad?” Seventy percent (70%) of the children chose the black doll as bad and the white doll as good. This study was used in a landmark desegregation case. https://www.thompsonschools.org/cms/lib/CO01900772/Centricity/Domain/3627/The%20Clark%20Doll%20Experiment.pdf 

The two black psychologists who did the experiment determined that “color in a racist society was a very disturbing and traumatic component of an individual’s sense of his own self-esteem and worth.” This may also lead to learned hopelessness. While a technology teacher in elementary school, I overheard a conversation in the lunchroom centered on Muslim American parents who had brought their kids to be enrolled in school. “They shouldn’t be here,” one teacher said. “But they’re Americans,” I interjected. “But they’re not real Americans,” was her reply. 

“The problem of the 20th and 21st century is the color line, and probably it will be in the 22nd century if systemic racism is not eliminated.” Children learn racism and sexism at a very young age, even while attending kindergarten. Looking at the Georgia kindergarten curriculum map for excellence in Social Studies (https://lor2.gadoe.org/gadoe/file/a1a403cd-9c0f-4b70-8ab5-39357ec63bed/1/Social-Studies-Kindergarten-Grade-Curriculum-Map.pdf ) youngsters are asked to study the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK) who is dead! (Myth: the only good Negro is a dead one, and black men who oppose the status quo will end up martyrs, is the lesson.) 

Under leaders, three are listed: Washington, Lincoln and the current President who is also white. There are no Hispanics, Cubans, Afro-Americans, or Asians on the list, and women are also absent. Columbus Day is mentioned, even though Christopher Columbus (Cristoforo Colombo) never entered Georgia or the United States, but he decimated many native Americans during his search for fame, glory, and gold. Will that fact be taught on Columbus Day, or “Columbus sailed the ocean blue. He discovered America in 1492”? 

Since Juneteenth was just added as a national holiday...how will it be taught in public schools, and by whom? These are definitely reasons why critical race theory should be used in teaching Social Studies in the pre-k and Kindergarten classroom. But you have to make sure first that teachers who teach know the true history of America, including South America and Canada, and that the curriculum is not biased in the first place.