Even do-gooders must not mention some history

We read:

"The mother of a former student at Warren Consolidated Schools has sued the district, claiming that her African-American daughter was the victim of racial bias and harassment by the teacher reading aloud of passages from a book about slavery.

Jamey Petree, representing Jala Petree, says that excerpts from “From Slave Ship to Freedom Road” were read last January by Jala’s fifth-grade teacher at Margaret Black Elementary School in Sterling Heights.

Two excerpts each two paragraphs long that were read include N-word references and compares African-Americans’ skin color to “Satan’s thoughts” and night darkness. The excerpts talk about the buying and selling of slaves.

The book, by Julius Lester, is designed for children aged 10 to 15 and uses essays to interpret 24 paintings by artist Rod Brown that depict scenes of slavery.

“Together, images and words reenact the 250-year journey from the first slave ships taking Africans forcibly from their homes, to the Civil War and emancipation,” says a review by www.scholastic .com. “What makes this book such a valuable learning tool, however, and such a unique response to a common subject of study, is Lester's inclusion of personal commentary, direct questions and ‘imagination exercises’ in his text. … ‘From Slave Ship to Freedom Road’ insists that students think about history, rather than simply learn the facts.”

Source

Leftists love to demonize America's past and mentioning that African skin was once said by somebody to be as black as Satan's thoughts was no doubt seen as a cool way of doing such demonization. It backfired this time, though.

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).