Parents are outraged after third graders in Gwinnett County, Ga., were given math homework Wednesday that asked questions about slavery and beatings. Read more after the jump…
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Christopher Braxton told ABC News affiliate WSB-TV in Atlanta that he couldn’t believe the assignment his 8-year-old son brought home from of Beaver Ridge Elementary school in Norcross.
“It kind of blew me away,” Braxton said. “Do you see what I see? Do you really see what I see? He’s not answering this question.”
The question read, “Each tree had 56 oranges. If eight slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick?”
Another math problem read, “If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in one week?”
Another question asked how many baskets of cotton Frederick filled.“I was furious at that point,” Braxton said.
“This outrages me because it just lets me know that there’s still racists,” said Stephanie Jones, whose child is a student at the school.
“Something like that shouldn’t be imbedded into a kid of the third, fourth, fifth, any grade,” parent Terrance Barnett told WSB-TV. “I’m having to explain to my 8-year-old why slavery or slaves or beatings are in a math problem. That hurts.”
“In this one, the teachers were trying to do a cross-curricular activity,” Gwinnett County school district spokeswoman Sloan Roach said.
Roach said the teachers were attempting to incorporate social studies into math problems.
“We understand that there are concerns about these questions, and we agree that these questions were not appropriate,” she said.
Thank God for that teacher having the nerves to teach what is history…
How hard is it to win the race toward success when you were privileged to start 100s of years ahead? (That includes having free slave labor) As an American with dark skin color, who also likes Americans with little to no skin color, I have always said and believed that any male American, with little to no color skin, had to work very hard to not-be-successful, let alone poor…
However, I changed my thinking the year 2000, when all of the middle class, clearly, begin to show the signs of being treated like Americans of dark skin color are always treated. Sadly, many with little to no skin color do-not know that yet. They are in the position that many slaves were when Harriet Tubman (1830-1913) said “I freed a thousand slaves, I could have freed a thousand more, if only they knew they were slaves†Actually there are a lot of people with dark skin color, who have been, successfully, brain washed into thinking that their skin is actually without color…
As an American with Dark colored skin, I totally agree with the teacher. If more Americans with dark colored skin knew their history, they would feel more valued; they would understand where many of their parents had to rise from to be who they became. They would understand how smart their parent had to be, and how hard their parent had to work, in order, to reach the point of being equal and surpass others who were not forced into slavery, and others who had over 100 years of a head start, just, because of the lack of color in their skin. It takes generations to pass-on, and to build a solid foundation toward well rounded success… This is something many Americans of dark skin color, to this day, have to struggle with, because in “select†rooms, no matter what, we are competing with those who will always be several generation ahead, therefore they are ,only, opening doors for their friends and family…That is how they will, more than likely, stay ahead. That is, unless it’s sports and entertainment. Billions of dollars can be made from not closing those “select†doors, because of the God given talents of many select people of dark colored skin. Ever notice how there is always belittlement of how much basketball and football players earns, but almost never mentioned is how much the owners, and general economy benefits, because of the talents of those with dark skin color. Sort of like those brain washed enough to be distracted by the pennies, the government gives to the people on welfare, compared to the billions of dollars the government gives to many at the top by way of contracts and tax breaks. Example, Morgan Stanley given the “Link†card contract…
Michael Jordan should be a billionaire, even though, I think he has no idea that he is one of the dark skinned people. However, not to worry, there are, and will always be moments when he will be reminded that “You†are still, just a colored “Boyâ€. If Herman Cain had believed he was one of dark skin color, he would not have had to drop out of the presidential race. Remember Bill Clinton and his relationship with people of dark skin. Since when does hoeing around, make one a bad overall person, in the eyes of most people of dark colored skin based upon our love and support for Bill Clinton?
From the article “The Book That Broke the Color Line:
“Yet it’s worth remembering that, once upon a time, books with black children at their center were seldom published at all. This year marks the 50th anniversary of Ezra Jack Keats’s “The Snowy Day” (Viking Children’s Books, $19.99, 48 pages), the first full-color picture book to feature an African-American protagonist. The 1963 Caldecott winner has since become a nursery favoriteâ€
Slavery was and still is ugly, but it was what it is. More people of all colors need to know that and understand that. If they did, the American generational-haves, of little to no skin color, would not feel so proud of themselves, and the American of dark skin color would feel better about themselves. Actually I think that is why Black history is discouraged and not taught in public school. Additionally, I think there are select American of color who are so ashamed of their history that any reference to it embarrasses them, instead of realizing what a big deal it is “in spite ofâ€, to be able to play on any playing field with the generational haves, where the doors to enter is not padlocked with, generational, unbreakable bars…