Green’s classroom is filled with memorabilia of Black history: African artifacts, Black Panther newspapers, and stacks of books about the Black experience. Throughout the year, students hear guest speakers, read books, and take field trips to local areas that reflect themes in Black history. They’ve gone out in the San Francisco Bay to take wind and tide readings the way that ancient African sailors did, visited North and West Oakland to see the effects of gentrification and discriminatory lending practices on the unhoused population, sampled gumbo stew while learning about its history, and toured a Black Panther Party museum. Students then choose individual research projects. For these projects, they develop a “claim” or a thesis statement, which they investigate by reading primary and secondary sources. This year’s topics include Black athletes and jazz musicians, inequities Black people face in healthcare, and issues affecting Black women and LGBT people.
“It’s a matter of stepping out of your mind and opening up your heart and soul. Not because we’re a melting pot, we don’t need to be melted together. We need to understand the richness of what every culture brings to the table.”
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African American Studies Are Foundational Studies
It’s controversial in the United States whether this African American Studies class should be considered a core subject and offered for advanced college credit. Fifteen states have already passed laws removing it from the curriculum in an attempt to whitewash a painful part of our history. However, the program is expanding. In its first year, sixty schools offered this class; in the second year, eight hundred did; in the future, they expect up to four thousand high schools to provide this experience. Green believes highly in the importance of his class for all people. “Humans first evolved in East Africa, so studying people whose ancestors were African is foundational to who we all are.” He explains that, while he strongly supports offering ethnic studies courses for all ethnic groups, teaching Black history is crucial. “As with Indigenous people, slavery and colonization cut many Black people off from knowledge about their history before their ancestors arrived in the Americas. There were efforts to erase our cultures and histories, and we’re undoing that here,” he says.
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