Jon Burns

The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill profoundly changed my perspective on several things, namely that in relation to: (1) My understanding of how history has specifically affected and continues to affect the personal and/or cultural identity of Black students; (2) The ways in which Black students have been forced to cope with systemic racism; and (3) Black History in Nova Scotia.

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I feel that in order to understand how a history of oppression affects Black students, we must examine the specific ways their culture has been impacted. While I was reading, I stumbled upon a concept which really helped me visualize how our long history of oppression can affect Black students. In the beginning of the book, Aminata discusses botched puberty rituals with her mother. n their village, all women were required to endure genital cutting when they reached the onset of puberty. Aminata’s mother points out that some women were unfortunate enough to have this done by someone with insufficient experience, causing significant scarring and ongoing health problems. She explains this by breaking a teapot, removing a few pieces, and having Aminata try to put it back together, resulting in the realization that “it can be fixed but you will always know the damage done”. This is the way I understand what slavery, oppression, segregation, denial of rights, and equality did to Aminata’s personal culture and her identity. Her culture started out as the unbroken tea pot, but after she was enslaved and forced to live in a colonized world, it was broken. Aminata and her people were stripped of everything they loved and punished for trying to hold onto any aspect of their identity. They were literally broken down. They were made to feel that their culture had no worth, they were unintelligent, and their only purpose was to serve the white man. Fortunately, because of a resilience I truly admire and will likely never fully understand, Aminata and others like her were able to hold onto the pieces of the teapot so that future generations would have the chance to piece it back together.

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I think my newfound understanding can be applied in the context of schooling. I believe some of the students I will be teaching may have had experiences growing up that mirror those of Aminata. Former teachers, and society in general, may have “broken their teapot”. This would result in the same feelings Aminata had, which really boiled down to “a fear of expression”. It is my responsibility as a teacher to create a safe environment devoid of fear. Unfortunately, fear that is rooted in history and experience is often an intense fear that many students grapple with in silence. It is important for me to understand the ways in which my students may already be coping with negative experiences related to their cultural identity.

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Another idea I drew from the book is “what you see in the classroom is usually the tip of the iceberg” (Hall, 1989). Specifically, I’ve realized that the students we see in the classroom may not be showing us their true selves. In the book, there were many times Aminata had to hold back aspects of her true cultural identity in order to survive. She hid her language and her religious beliefs for fear of persecution. I believe students from marginalized groups do this as well. Due to historically ingrained cultural norms and stereotypes, marginalized students may feel they have to take on characteristics of the dominant culture in order to be successful. Which makes sense, how can they trust that their cultural identity will be accepted in a system created by colonists? A system designed to make everyone the same based on an assembly line model is essentially a dehumanizing system created by a Eurocentric perspective which only serves to benefit white people.

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Societal issues related to colonization and patriarchal practices have and continue to bleed into our schools. This means that the education system holds a lot of history in its design, including slavery. It rewards those who keep their heads down and adhere to the norm. Guess what? The norm is racist. The remnants of our not-so-distant past become especially apparent when we look at individual peoples’ experiences within the school system. In cases like Natisha Archer’s account of her experiences in Windsor, Ontario schools (Maru, 2020). Multiple teachers took issue with her headscarf, an expression of her culture. Whether the teachers were ignorant or bigoted, there was clearly a toxic culture present at the school. To top it all off, she was sent home because of her refusal to take off the scarf. The school interfered with her education because she wanted to express her cultural identity. Sound familiar? This echoes the efforts of slavers to destroy culture. In the 1600s, the Black people of Africa had their clothes ripped from their bodies and were told to submit to slavery or die. In 2020, Natisha was told to remove her headscarf or take her inquiring mind to another school. This is important for me to remember as a teacher because it stands to reason why my students may be actively holding back pieces of who they are in order to assimilate or “fit in”. This means that I need to work hard in order to create a safe, inclusive classroom and school atmosphere where my students feel free to express their culture.

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To be successful in this, I feel that the most important thing I need to do is earn my students’ trust. In the context of cultural relevance, this is not easy, especially since I’m white. Some teachers may think that demonstrating integrity and fairness will be enough to make their students comfortable. However, in the larger context of schooling, there is so much more to think about. When students from marginalized groups see my face, they see the face of every white, authoritarian oppressor throughout history. That is the reality. Maybe I wasn’t the one who broke their trust, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have a responsibility to restore it. This is the way I will think about my student-teacher relationship: “I don’t have their trust to lose, I have their trust to earn”. So how will I earn my students' trust?

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I will have to let my students know that, in our school, success is not limited by cultural expression, cultural expression is success. This means that faculty and students need to be constantly educated on the subjects we examine in this class (i.e., social justice, multiculturalism, privilege, etc.) in order to avoid the past mistakes of educators (like the ones in Natisha’s case). With the wealth of knowledge, teachers have access to, ignorance is no excuse. An important part of this education I will try to integrate in my teaching is community engagement.

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As we discussed in class, Nova Scotia is home to many historically Black communities. I think learning about these communities and visiting historical sites would be a great way to maintain cultural relevance in our schools. This will allow my students, myself and other teachers to learn about culture in an experiential and engaging way. I have noticed that multicultural education doesn’t truly sink in unless it becomes personally relevant. It doesn’t get much more personally relevant than the physical surroundings we call home.  No matter where I will be teaching in Nova Scotia, there is most likely a historically Black community nearby. As I myself have discovered, the list is huge! I was very surprised when reading The Book of Negroes to learn of the rich Black history rooted in Nova Scotia. Having grown up in Nova Scotia, I can attest that it felt like the “whitest” place you could be (there is no other way to put it). Not necessarily because of what I experienced but rather because, on the surface, it seemed to fit the stereotype of “a bunch of white fishermen”. I was never taught to look at my surroundings through a multicultural lens and challenge historical narratives which did not include the stories of African Nova Scotians. I was robbed of truth, but my students will not be.

 

In addition to community engagement, I will also be very careful in the selection of source material for my classes. The proper selection of children’s literature and textbooks is essential to a curriculum rooted in social justice (Au, 2007). I think the use of materials that follow traditional historical narratives contributes to the breakdown of trust amongst marginalized students. My students most likely know their history, which means they know when the stories of their people are left out of their education. How can my students trust me if I’m teaching them about a historical narrative that doesn’t exist? When I put myself in the shoes of my students and imagine hearing heroic stories about a dominant race that was anything but heroic, I feel their frustration, anger, and sadness. I can avoid this by educating myself properly and allowing students the chance to contribute their own source material. Students can add to the curriculum as well!

In conclusion, community engagement and a critical eye regarding my teaching resources will help guide my pedagogy moving forward. My main goal is to fight “the fear of expression” present amongst my students by making strides to earn their trust. I will do this by ensuring my entire school community is educated on the history of marginalized groups in order to avoid cultural collisions based in ignorance, and by selecting source material which reflects true historical narratives. This will hopefully contribute to a culturally responsive environment in which my students feel free to express their “true selves”.