Teachers must resist GOP academic tyranny

Thursday Thoughts!

When I read that Michael James, 61, an exceptional education teacher at predominantly Black Semmes Elementary School in Escambia County, Florida, had written a resignation letter to Florida Gov. Ron Desantis after a colleague removed his collage of famous Black figures in history this week, I couldn't help but shake my head and ponder what I would have done under the same circumstances?

Michael James (left), formerly of Semmes Elementary, and Gov. Ron Desantis

I immediately concluded that the best options for Teacher Hobbs would have been to:

A. Quietly put the collage back up...

B. Cuss the colleague out before putting the collage right back up...

C. Put the original collage back up with even more photos of important Black figures, or 

D. Resign in similar fashion as Mr. James. 

If you have known me for any length of time, then you know that my gut level reaction would have vacillated somewhere between "B" and "C," but honestly, I think that "C" is where I would have landed—followed by a campaign of defiance against conservative attacks on the First Amendment of the Constitution. 

Now, if you think today's blog is another deep dive into Black and white, think again; race is at play, mind you, but not in the virulent "we hate N-words and Coloreds" type of bias that has been America's calling card from time immemorial. 

No, the deeper issue is that for the better part of two decades, there has been a steady anti-public education theme that has grown from whispers to what we see today, where conservative politicians are full throated in their designs to limit government spending on public schools that primarily educate Black, Brown, and lower economic class whites.

More often than not, the loudest right wing reform politicos do NOT send their own children to public schools. Rather, their kids attend patrician parochial, private, and evangelical academies that lack diversity among the educators, the student body, and within the curriculum. 

Now, there's an old saying that "winners write history," one that's as trite and true as still another,"lions don't concern themselves with the opinions of sheep." Both cliches are precisely why Black service members fought and died in segregated units during World War II—and returned home to lynch mobs and Jim Crow segregation that stymied their advancement. 

But chances are that if you were born between 1940-1980, that you were taught all about how the G.I. Bill helped returning soldiers attend college, buy homes, and build new suburbs and cities. Chances are equally great that you were NOT taught that those benefits were withheld from Black G.I. hands at anywhere close to the same rates as whites, because the federal government had no interest at all at fomenting real Democracy here at home, despite the multiracial American blood spilled to defeat fascism abroad. 

Such is why I take such great pleasure in providing historical facts that I've learned through the years in my blogs and articles, because I realize "why" the truth has been suppressed in the past—and is under attack now—which is the preservation of the racial hierarchal structure that's existed from the day one in these United States. Such is also why I don’t believe the Escambia School District office when they clapped back by saying that Mr. James's posters were not removed because, lest we forget, Florida is in the middle of gubernatorial and local races and the appearance of inclusion means more than substance.

In this same vein, have you ever asked why an enslaved Black man, woman, or child could be executed for daring to learn how to read from 1619-1865? It's because the ability to read and think leads one to stop and conclude, "wait—all of this liberty and justice for all is a bunch of lies when it comes to the slave, the Native, and any non whites."

To that end, the elimination of public education simply allows those who prefer for hidden history facts to remain hidden to do so under the color of private authority. Which makes me circle back to Mr. James, the veteran educator whose collage featuring Dr. Martin Luther King, Harriet Tubman, Colin Powell, and George Washington Carver featured extraordinary figures who embodied the ideals that these conservatives "claim" to respect. 

But the problem is that talk is cheap, and the truth about those legendary Black Americans doesn't matter when skin color is the weapon, and the existence of Black historic figures will be questioned by right wingers who ask "if I can't hoist a photo of Confederate leaders Robert E. Lee, Jeb Stuart, or Nathan Bedford Forrest on a wall, then why should Black leaders be hoisted on a wall?"

Indeed, the cynical inability to distinguish between the valor of Harriet Tubman leading the enslaved to freedom behind the troop encampments of the Rebel soldiers fighting to keep them in bondage is due to this nation's long simmering culture war, one marked by the lies and distortions told in public schools in ages past—lies that are boiling over due to modern generations refusing to bow our heads and say "yes-suh, Mr. Governor, suh" when it is clear that said governor and his followers are as wrong as two right feet. 

Thus, my kudos to Mr. James for simply saying "enough" and fighting back by sacrificing his job; here's hoping that he will land at another school that will utilize his full talents and passion—while allowing him to attack his old system with all of the rhetorical fury he can muster!

Happy Birthday Momma

The Hobbservation Point is blessed to wish it’s Editor Emeritus, Dr. Vivian Hobbs, a very Happy Birthday ❤!