King and the Dream: A Brief 11th-Grade Lesson

Following are three reflections that took up space in my head today, the 86th birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. The first I posted to Facebook early this morning. Some folks commented on the post, which prompted the second reflection. The third was screaming to get out during 2nd and 3rd periods with my 11th-graders.

(8 a.m.) I'm still on the fence about seeing "Selma." As historical FICTION and not documentary, there will be scenes and lines that are, simply, made up. Films like this make us believe we are seeing wholly accurate re-enactments. Only the actual footage of that March day can really put us there. Generations, including my own, that were on the tail end of the movement or came along years after are prone to be misled by this type of depiction. It seems so real, so true. Among the criticism is the movie's downplaying or degrading of SNCC. So ... is knowing something better than knowing nothing, even when that something that you know is incorrect and/or misleading, not factual? Is there such a thing as sort of factual? Is that okay?

(7 p.m.) I find myself wanting American blacks to stop looking to be entertained all the time. That's been sort of my understated mission as a teacher, to get students to start thinking for longer periods of time, to develop those thoughts, to begin to feel the spark of energy when original insights pop into their minds -- their own ideas! -- and when they ask a question no one has asked. My 9th-graders used to see me setting up the LCD projector and ask: "We watching a movie today?!" After a while, they came to know the answer: "Oh, that's right, Ms. Matthews shows docuMENtaries." I've wondered about it at times. But my students are never disappointed, whether they realize I see it or not. They discover every single time their capacity to learn something, to see something in a new way, to go, in their minds, beyond where they'd ever been. They feel good about themselves.

(8 p.m.) It was my honor today to show my students the entirety of the "I Have a Dream" speech. We watched excerpts of two other King addresses, but I started with the March on Washington. I wondered this morning if they'd ever heard it or if all they knew were the famous buzz words that project interracial nirvana. A couple of my students actually said, when I asked what they knew about the speech, that King's message was that he wanted black and white children to be able to play together. Alrighty then. It was this level of understanding that I wanted to dig into and elevate, if possible. Actually, I was certain that it was possible, once they saw King deliver the full speech and heard him in other speeches, one from 1967 and the "mountaintop" address. The students were watching and listening closely. They were enthralled. They saw King the human, King the "frustrated," as they said, King the "tired," King the "aggravated," King the "fed up," King the uncompromising. I just wanted them to leave school today knowing more of the whole picture, more of the complexity of the movement, of King, more of what had been at stake, that it was a living time, not just still pictures and monuments. I don't want them to hear "I have a dream" in the same way any more. I want them to see why it's still relevant. Why the necessity for civil rights advocacy still is pressing.

Selma, Lord, Selma

I'm going to see "Selma" the film soon. Eventually. I suppose.

Many of us will take young people to see it, I'm sure. May I suggest we not rely solely upon this one source to teach our children about Selma and the civil rights movement? Looking at many sources will give children, and all of us, a more thorough understanding of the movement, and will allow us to examine the events, people, issues, and ideals from different perspectives.

I want to pitch this book for young adult readers. Published around 1980, it was written by two women who were girls in Selma during those consciousness-raising days. They closely watched, wide-eyed, at what was happening around them. They asked questions of the adults, they sensed the urgency and importance of what their parents and neighbors were doing, and they wanted in! This recollection of the Selma story will give young adults a sense that they, too, can provoke change. It will make apathy a shameful and wasteful experience.

Yes, there has been a Disney movie produced based on the book (with Jurnee Smollett). Yet ... there's nothing like getting inside of a story as you do when you read it. There are many stories on, many accounts of, the civil rights movement that we should read. Hollywood depictions, even when they are worthy, give us limited, very narrow, and misleading views of a subject. We surely don't want to rely on Disney to tell this people's history. That can be more dangerous than knowing nothing at all.

This was one of the first books I reviewed when I started my work in public libraries as a Young Adult Services Specialist. I have never forgotten the voices of Sheyann and Rachel. Read it, and share it.

Black Friday ... It's On!

Yes, we can ... do this! Gotta shop? Suggestions, anyone? 

BZB's Gift Show is back at Shiloh Family Life Center, with a slew of independent, African-American vendors from all over the country. 

They won't have aluminum foil, dish detergent, and bread, true. Hmmmm...

I'd pick Giant and Safeway over the Wal-Martons any day. Employees have a voice, through their union. Giant gets a good salary report, too. 
http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Employer=Giant_Food_Stores/Hourly_Rate

For grown-ups not getting full support from their parents, Target isn't a choice employer. It has a great look and fantastic marketing (and neat stuff), but its labor practices are no better than Wal-Mart's. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ralph-nader/target-walmart_b_4254981.html

Costco has a conscientious attitude toward paying people salaries that are appropriate for  ... people! http://www.businessinsider.com/costcos-simple-strategy-2014-9

The change we seek in our society has to start not within our collective conscience, but within each individual conscience. Thinking ....

http://www.thenation.com/blog/191193/decoding-demonization-marion-barry#

Wal-Mart Workers' Push-back: As American As It Gets

Wal-Mart's Walton family, the Wal-Martons, is a monument to greed and inhumanity, the personification of "selfish." There are those who are scoffing at these protests. Why scoff? Pushing back is just as American (more American?) as corporate greed. 

Some people say the Wal-Martons have earned their right to be filthy rich and detached, to control their wealth any way they want. "Their right" ... an overused and misused expression. A throwaway term. Who granted the Wal-Martons this right? No, they did not earn it all by themselves.

I view the Wal-Martons as thieves no less conniving than Dick Cheney. Americans become gullible in matters of wealth and fame, other people's wealth and fame, that is. These workers are smart and bold, and not fooled in the least by wolves claiming to be sheep.

See this story from Bloomberg -- "How Wal-Mart's Waltons Maintain Their Billionaire Fortune"  

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-12/how-wal-mart-s-waltons-maintain-their-billionaire-fortune-taxes.html