I urge you all to pay attention to the world moving around us. At a time when we celebrate Black History month an important curriculum is being threatened. As an educator I believe teachers should be able to use a variety of sources to teach and students should hear a variety of views to decide how they view the world. The 1619 project provides a supplemental way to teach history in America. who look like me in the areas of criminal justice, education, jobs, wealth, and health. It’s been hundreds of years battle just to get equality in a place that says, One Nation Under God. Would God be happy in the path that the United States is going? I urge you to not look at the 1619 project as a threat, but a help, a help to provide information to people to have a better understanding of slavery and the United States and what the impact of slavery had on Blacks living in America and continue to have this very day. Thanks to Nikole HannahJones and The New York Times we have another perspective, another view that is different then what we’ve been taught in school and it’s refreshing to have a curriculum to teach Blacks who have always had to stare into books that don’t represent them. I ask that you vote against this bill if you don’t you will strip the very voice away from people who look like me. It’s time that America atones for the sins that have taken place in this country. You can begin redeem yourself and allow Very rarely do we take a deep dive into slavery and many times we would prefer to act like it didn’t exist because it would show a side of America we rarely want people to see. We refer to America as land of the free and home of the brave and while there isn’t slavery going on like that is mentioned in 1619, we still have issues that take place in the United States that impact people I believe fear sets in when we feel something is trying to be replaced or taken away. I imagine you are experiencing the same type of fear when my ancestors were sold and treated as property. Well maybe no one can relate to that fear. They had no voice and if they dared speak up it would cost them their life. Just think about that it would cost them their life to speak up. another perspective of history to be taught in our classrooms across the state of Iowa. Change starts with us, and I ask you to be that change today. Blessings, Dwana B The URBAN EXPERIENCE | 2021 7
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