Classically Free

Racism will always exist. It will probably always be part of the DNA of the country. But when I think of the Black and Unknown Bards who wrote our sacred Spirituals, and how they did not dismiss Christianity because of how the master’s distorted version of it held them captive

When I think of how Douglass used the master’s handwriting to write his own pass to freedom, using the master’s journals as a copywork book, instead of dismissing that anything good could come from the master because of his racism

When I think of the classical training of Duke Ellington and Nina Simone and how they did not dismiss classical training in music because it was the culture of those who would not let us enter segregated performance spaces

When I think of how my ancestors who embraced elements of an oppressive culture, as a way to live out their freedom and then used it to create a liberated culture, I realize that to dismiss classical education or the @CLT_Exam because it seems associated with racism, limits us

I see myself and my people as worldwide. The world belongs to us. Classical education belongs to us. We can conquer anything, a classic text or even a standardized test, because our ancestors did, and because they did, I am here…YOU are here

I want to give my children and your children the world, for it belongs to them. Our ancestors literally lost their lives so the world can belong to them. Hands were cut off for holding a book from the canon. Now our children can claim what once was kept from them

Do we reject something because racist people seek to silence the stories of my people, while elevating the stories of the Western tradition above my own? Or do we take it back and as Baldwin says, “Make these White centuries MINE.” Me, my kids, & my students are learning everything the world thinks we cannot comprehend & like the ancestors, we are weaving it together with our stories, because we are FREE