What The Heck Was That Mother Thinking?
With Halloween behind us, we begin to contemplate the costumes we observed on others and often ask ourselves, “What were they thinking?”
It isn’t just Halloween that brings out the worst in people’s costuming choices, but this is the time of year we are most focused on this issue.
This year, a mother let her seven-year-old child trick or treat in an authentic-looking KKK outfit, complete with hood and insignia. She claims that her son asked her if he could dress up as a Klansman and that his request prompted her to make the costume for him.
Most children that age are insistent on dressing up as their favorite super hero or video game character. Some opt for zombies and ghouls or vampires and werewolves. Some will choose a favorite WWE wrestler or cartoon character. What kind of parent would encourage her child to dress as something that is the embodiment of hate? How does a seven-year-old even know about the KKK?
In second grade history, students are learning all the good things about our past. They learn about slavery in a general way because it must be understood somewhat to be able to understand the accomplishments of Harriet Tubman. But they don’t learn about the KKK.
Black History month is celebrated, and students learn about Martin Luther King, Jr., George Washington Carver, Sojourner Truth, and the many other prominent black heroes from our past. They learn about Abe Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation, but they don’t learn about the KKK.
Students don’t really learn about the existence of the KKK in school until around fourth grade. By that time they have the intellectual capability to understand why the Klan was such an abomination. By that time they have noticed racial and cultural differences in one another. By then they have visited each other’s homes and had meals prepared in different ways, accenting different ethnicity and cultures.
In a perfect world, they take no notice that little Johnny has dark skin, little Suzie has almond-shaped eyes, or that little Sarah wears a hijab to cover her hair. In a perfect world they embrace each other just as they did in kindergarten, by ignoring or just not noticing these differences.
But this is not a perfect world. Fourth grade is generally when kids get mean. That is when we most often begin to see the prejudices of parents begin to manifest in their children. Unless your mom is Jessica Black of Craigsville, Virginia.
“It’s suppose to be white with white. Black with black. Man with woman and all of that. That’s what the KKK stands for,”
said Black as she calmly justified why she allowed her son to dress in the KKK costume during an interview with WHSV, further stating that it had been a family tradition.
“My brother was when he was in kindergarten and when he was 13.”
Neighbors were shocked.
“I just think it’s really sad that a child is being taught that. That young, because they don’t know any better. You don’t hear that much about it”
said Wendy Sprouse, a neighbor who saw the child in costume.
This isn’t just a Halloween problem. Things like this go on throughout the year, across the country. It is just that we hear about them at this time of year.
On January 9, 2013, two students at the Las Vegas Academy decided to dress in Ku Klux Klan outfits to perform an oral report on US history to chronicle the atrocities of the KKK. The teacher was aware of the costuming choice and advised the 11th graders NOT to wear the costumes outside of the classroom. One of them did. Someone took a picture and posted it online. Questions and complaints followed.
Was it inappropriate for the teacher to allow the costumes to be worn? Probably. Was it inappropriate for the student to wear the costume outside of class against the advice of the teacher? Most definitely. Is it the end of the world? No, just an unfortunate incident. Principal Scott Walker (unfortunate name similarity to Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin) wrote a letter issued to the parents, acknowledging the incident and referring to it as ‘unfortunate’ and ‘inappropriate.’
“While the presentation was designed to highlight the atrocities committed by the Klan, and there was no intention to harm or offend on the part of the students, it was in poor judgment and inappropriate for students to go to such lengths to convey their message.”
“I am deeply saddened that LVA, which prides itself on providing a supportive learning environment for all, was the site of any action that could cause sadness and anger for our school family.”
The Las Vegas Academy isn’t the only school highlighted for questionable and controversial ‘incidents,’ but they do seem to be the most frequently mentioned. Other ‘incidents’ at the school include allowing theater students to use the ‘N-word’ during a production of ‘Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ last year and allowing students to dress up as Adolf Hitler during other classroom assignments.
Since these incidents, the Clark County School District, where LVA is located, has instituted voluntary sensitivity training for the instructors in an attempt to assist them in teaching these potentially volatile areas of our history in a way that does not offend people without losing the impact that these events had in shaping our nation.
It isn’t just restricted to dressing up in a KKK costume for Halloween or using authentic costumes and language to portray historical characters.
In other areas of the US, a fourth grade teacher in Norfolk, Virginia held a mock slave auction in April, 2011 where the white students took turns ‘buying’ black students. A similar event occurred in a Columbus, Ohio school, where short of the actual mock auction, a teacher allowed her white students to examine black students to determine if they would be worth ‘buying.’
Examining our past is integral to understanding history and not repeating the mistakes of past generations. Doing it in such a way as to be inoffensive to all is next to impossible as someone will always find fault with whatever is presented. The key is to keep lessons factual while exercising discretion and providing age-appropriate lessons and explaining why these points in history are so important to our future.
